SYSTEMATICS OF THE SALMONID GENUS SALVELINUS INFERRED FROM RIBOSOMAL DNA-SEQUENCES

DNA sequences of the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA were determined for six species of the genus Salvelinus: S. alpinus (Arctic char), S. malma (Dolly Varden), S. confluentus (bull trout), S. leucomaenis (Japanese char), S. fontinalis (brook trout), and S. namaycush (lake trout), and for Hucho perryi (huchen). The ITS2 sequence data (approximately 375 base pairs (bp)) were combined with previously determined sequence data for the ITS1 (approximately 575 bp), giving a total of 981 bp of aligned sequence for each species. Phylogenetic analysis of the aligned sequences was done using maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and distance matrix methods with H. perryi as an outgroup. The results were consistent with previous work based on comparisons of morphologies, allozymes, and karyotypes. Comparison of these results with those based on mitochondrial DNA sequences suggests that hybridization may have occurred between S. confluentus and S. alpinus or S. malma.