ALLOPATRIC ORIGIN OF SYMPATRIC POPULATIONS OF LAKE WHITEFISH (COREGONUS CLUPEAFORMIS) AS REVEALED BY MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA RESTRICTION ANALYSIS

Abstract

In the paper, restriction-fragment length polymorphisms in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were studied to test the hypothesis that sympatric populations of lake whitefish in the Allegash basin have recently diverged through sympatric speciation. Thirteen restriction enzymes were used to analyze mtDNA of 156 specimens representing 13 populations from eastern Canada and northern Maine where normal and dwarf phenotypes of whitefish exist in sympatry and allopatry. Two monophyletic assemblages of populations that exhibit different geographic distributions were identified. One showed an eastern distribution that expands from Cape Breton to the Allegash basin and the other exhibits a more western distribution. The Allegash basin was the only area of overlap. The western assemblage exhibited the normal size phenotype in all cases, whereas the eastern assemblage exhibited the normal size phenotype in allopatric conditions and the dwarf size phenotype in sympatry. The existence of sympatric pairs in the Allegash basin result from the secondary contact of two monophyletic groups of whitefish that evolved allopatrically in separate refugia during the last glaciation events. The weak mtDNA difference of sympatric pairs suggests that speciation of lake whitefish in eastern North America was accompanied by only minor alterations of the ancestral gene pool.