Multiple colonisations of the Lake Malawi catchment by the genus Opsaridium (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).

It has been proposed that the fish faunas of African rivers assemble through multiple colonisation events, while lake faunas form additionally through intralacustine speciation. While this pattern has been established for many lineages, most notably cichlids, there are opportunities to further investigate the concept using phylogenies of congeneric endemic species within ancient lake catchments. The Lake Malawi catchment contains three river-spawning cyprinids of the genus Opsaridium, two of which are endemic. These species differ in body size, migratory behaviour and habitat use, but it has never previously been tested if these represent a monophyletic radiation, or have instead colonised the lake independently. We placed these species in a broader phylogeny of Opsaridium and the related genus Raiamas, including all known species from the river systems surrounding Lake Malawi. Our results suggest that each of the species has independently colonised the lake catchment, with all three taxa having well-defined sister taxa outside of the lake, and all sharing a common ancestor ∼14.9million years ago, before the Lake Malawi basin started to form ∼8.6million years ago. Additionally, the results strongly support previous observations that Opsaridium is not a monophyletic group, but instead contains Raiamas from the Congo drainage. Together these results are supportive of the concept that river fish faunas within African catchments are primarily assembled through a process of accumulation from independent origins, rather than within-catchment speciation and adaptive radiation. In light of these results we also suggest there is scope for a re-evaluation of systematics of both Opsaridium and Raiamas.

Glacial history of the North Atlantic marine snail, Littorina saxatilis, inferred from distribution of mitochondrial DNA lineages.

The North Atlantic intertidal gastropod, Littorina saxatilis (Olivi, 1792), exhibits extreme morphological variation between and within geographic regions and has become a model for studies of local adaptation; yet a comprehensive analysis of the species' phylogeography is lacking. Here, we examine phylogeographic patterns of the species' populations in the North Atlantic and one remote Mediterranean population using sequence variation in a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (607 bp). We found that, as opposed to many other rocky intertidal species, L. saxatilis has likely had a long and continuous history in the Northwest Atlantic, including survival during the last glacial maximum (LGM), possibly in two refugia. In the Northeast Atlantic, several areas likely harboured refugial populations that recolonized different parts of this region after glacial retreat, resulting in strong population structure. However, the outlying monomorphic Venetian population is likely a recent anthropogenic introduction from northern Europe and not a remnant of an earlier wider distribution in the Mediterranean Sea. Overall, our detailed phylogeography of L. saxatilis adds an important piece to the understanding of Pleistocene history in North Atlantic marine biota as well as being the first study to describe the species' evolutionary history in its natural range. The latter contribution is noteworthy because the snail has recently become an important model species for understanding evolutionary processes of speciation; thus our work provides integral information for such endeavours.

Extreme female promiscuity in a non-social invertebrate species.

BACKGROUND: While males usually benefit from as many matings as possible, females often evolve various methods of resistance to matings. The prevalent explanation for this is that the cost of additional matings exceeds the benefits of receiving sperm from a large number of males. Here we demonstrate, however, a strongly deviating pattern of polyandry. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analysed paternity in the marine snail Littorina saxatilis by genotyping large clutches (53-79) of offspring from four females sampled in their natural habitats. We found evidence of extreme promiscuity with 15-23 males having sired the offspring of each female within the same mating period. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Such a high level of promiscuity has previously only been observed in a few species of social insects. We argue that genetic bet-hedging (as has been suggested earlier) is unlikely to explain such extreme polyandry. Instead we propose that these high levels are examples of convenience polyandry: females accept high numbers of matings if costs of refusing males are higher than costs of accepting superfluous matings.

High levels of multiple paternity in Littorina saxatilis: hedging the bets?

The mating system of a species can have great effects on its genetic structure and evolution. We studied the extent of multiple paternity in a gastropod with internal fertilization, the intertidal snail Littorina saxatilis. Paternal genotype reconstruction based on microsatellite markers was performed on the offspring of wild, naturally fertilized females from 2 populations. The numbers of males contributing to the offspring per female were among the highest detected in invertebrates so far, with the exception of social insects. No reproductive skew in favor of males that were genetically more distant from the females was detected, and the pattern of fertilization appeared random. The result fits a hypothesis of indiscriminate mating, with genetic bet hedging as the most likely explanation. Bet hedging may have evolved as a form of inbreeding avoidance, if the snails are not able to recognize relatives. However, nutritional benefits from sperm or sexual conflict with males are additional possibilities that remain to be assessed in this species. Whatever the causes, such high levels of multiple paternity are remarkable and are likely to have a large impact on population structure and dynamics in a species in which migration between populations is spurious.