Population genetics of a cyclostome species pair, river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis L) and brook lamprey (Lampetra planeri Bloch)

Horizontal agarose gel electrophoresis of 24 allozyme loci in four species of Central European lampreys (321 Lampetra planeri, 83 L. fluviatilis, 11 Eudontomyzon mariae and nine Petromyzon marinus) was used to study the 'paired species' L. fluviatilis and L. planeri. The genetic differentiation of the anadromous river lamprey (L. fluviatilis) from the stationary brook lamprey (L. planeri) was within the range of ingroup differentiation of the latter, but L. fluviatilis exhibited much greater population cohesion over a more extended geographic range: G(ST) = 0.0537 versus G(ST) = 0.3398, N(c)m = 4.402 versus N(c)m = 0.4856, mean genetic among-stock distances D = 0.0047 versus D = 0.0257. L. planeri populations coexisting geographically with L. fluviatilis in the Rhine and Elbe river systems were genetically more cohesive than L. planeri stocks from the Danubian basin where L. fluviatilis is absent. Danubian L. planeri populations exhibit a lower degree of heterozygosity than brook lampreys from the Rhine river system, but comprise deeper genetic lineages (G(ST) = 0.4629 versus G(ST) = 0.2434), despite being sampled from a much more restricted area. Isolation-by-distance is observed for L. planeri from the Danubian but not from the Atlantic drainage basins. Transspecific gene flow between L. planeri from Atlantic drainage basins and the long-distant migrating L. fluviatilis is inferred, raising doubt on the validity of two separate biospecies. E. mariae and P. marinus are clearly differentiated from Lampetra spp. at several allozyme loci.