Biology subjects

Panova, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Panova, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Monitoring of the invasive round goby in an estuarine seascape based on eDNA

0.0Non-indigenous species (NIS) is one of the five most global concerns when it comes to ecosystem services and threats to native biodiversity. This is especially true in aquatic environments which are harder to monitor than terrestrial environments, and NIS are often found first when they are fully established and basically impossible to eradicate. In marine environments, this is further complicated due to the connectivity and difficulty of eradication. The development and implementation of effective monitoring methods for marine NIS are therefore crucial to enable early detection useful for management strategies. In this study, we develop and evaluate environmental DNA monitoring using quantitative (q)PCR as a means to assess presence of the euryhaline round goby fish (Neogobius melanostomus) in a seascape environment close to Scandinavias largest shipping port. We developed a dPCR assay for the species, targeting a region of 12S gene, and verified its specificity compared to other common species from the gobiid-family in the region. We also experimentally determined the decaying rate of round goby DNA in water to a half-life of 9.8 hours in 15 PSU and 15{degrees}C with live fish in captivity. Finally, we sampled 10 sites within a 400 km2 area for eDNA and presence of the species using fyke-nets and baited remote video to validate the accuracy of the water samples to predict presence, and abundance. We found that the number of DNA copies extracted from the water samples varied strongly at sites where round gobies were caught in nets or on video, but that the average value from four water samples significantly correlated with an average value from four video samples, and also with the total catch at each site. The eDNA assay also detected signals from the species at sites where no fish were caught by fishing or on video. These results show that this method is highly sensitive for the species even in low abundance, and with sufficient amounts of replicates, it can be possible to determine the relative abundance between sites.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Strong spatial genetic structure in a Baltic Sea herbivore due to recent range expansion, multiple bottlenecks and low connectivity

In the Baltic Sea, recent range expansions following the opening of the Danish straits have resulted in a low-diversity ecosystem, both among and within species. However, relatively little is known about population genetic patterns within the basin, except for in a few commercially caught species and some primary producers thought to be ecosystem engineers. Here, we investigate the population genetic structure of the ecologically important crustacean Idotea balthica throughout the Baltic Sea using an array of 33,774 genome-wide SNP markers derived from 2b-RAD sequencing. We also generate a biophysical connectivity matrix, with which we compare the genomic data. We find strong population structure on small scales across the Baltic Sea, and that genomic patterns in most cases closely match biophysical connectivity, suggesting that current patterns are important for dispersal of this species. We also find a strong signal of multiple bottlenecks during the initial range expansion, in the form of reduced heterozygosity along the historical expansion front. The lack of gene flow among sampling sites in the Baltic Sea environmental gradient potentiates local adaptation, while at the same time also increasing genetic drift in low-diversity areas.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Genomic architecture of parallel ecological divergence: beyond a single environmental contrast

The genetic basis of parallel ecological divergence provides important clues to the operation of natural selection and the predictability of evolution. Many examples exist where binary environmental contrasts seem to drive parallel divergence. However, this simplified view can conceal important components of parallel divergence because environmental variation is often more complex. Here, we disentangle the genetic basis of parallel divergence across two axes of environmental differentiation (crab-predation vs. wave-action and low-shore vs. high-shore habitat contrasts) in the marine snail Littorina saxatilis, a well established natural system of parallel ecological divergence. We used whole-genome resequencing across multiple instances of these two environmental axes, at local and regional scales from Spain to Sweden. Overall, sharing of genetic differentiation is generally low but it is highly heterogeneous across the genome and increases at smaller spatial scales. We identified genomic regions, both overlapping and non-overlapping with recently described candidate chromosomal inversions, that are differentially involved in adaptation to each of the environmental axis. Thus, the evolution of parallel divergence in L. saxatilis is largely determined by the joint action of geography, history, genomic architecture and congruence between environmental axes. We argue that the maintenance of standing variation, perhaps as balanced polymorphism, and/or the re-distribution of adaptive variants via gene flow can facilitate parallel divergence in multiple directions as an adaptive response to heterogeneous environments.

evolutionary biology↗