No Evidence of Fisheries-Induced Evolution Observed in Bluegill populations from Small Impoundments in Southeast Kansas
Objective: Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus support recreational fisheries throughout much of theirgeographic distribution. One characteristic of the species is for males to exhibit alternative reproductivetactics to maximize production of progeny. These divergent strategies coupled with size-selectiveharvest by anglers create potential for fisheries-induced evolution (FIE). As such, we sought tocharacterize genetic diversity of five fished and five unfished Bluegill populations to test for occurrenceof FIE.Methods: Fin clips from 100 Bluegill across 10 populations (five fished and five unfished) in southeastKansas were collected to examine genetic diversity and test for occurrence of FIE associated with long-term selective harvest. Individuals were genotyped using genome-wide SNP data using RADseq.Population genetic analyses were performed on three datasets: all individuals, females-only and males-only.Result: Genomic analyses from 92 Bluegill across 10 populations demonstrated consistent observedheterozygosity across populations that was less than expected heterozygosity. As such, there was lowgenetic differentiation among populations with &amp;gt; 94% of genetic difference explained by individualswithin populations and no evidence of selection. Cluster analysis supported these findings of geneticoverlap among populations by grouping individuals into one to three distinct genetic populations.Conclusion: We found no evidence of FIE in either fished or unfished Bluegill populations. Rather, therewas little genetic variation among the 10 study populations excluding one population. Combiningcontrolled experiments with recent advances in describing the Bluegill genome would be useful foridentifying presence or absence of FIE in exploited Bluegill populations.