1. Genetic differentiation and gene flow of the Amazonian catfish Pseudoplatystoma punctifer across the Madeira River rapids prior to the construction of hydroelectric dams.
- Author
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Cunha-Machado, Antonio Saulo, Farias, Izeni Pires, Hrbek, Tomas, Escobar, Maria Doris, Alves-Gomes, José Antônio, Formiga, Kyara Martins, and da Silva Batista, Jacqueline
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GENE flow , *EFFECT of dams on fishes , *DAM design & construction , *GENETIC variation , *CATFISHES , *MICROSATELLITE repeats - Abstract
The large catfish Pseudoplatystoma punctifer plays an important role as a top predator in the Amazonian Basin ecosystem. The Madeira River is the largest tributary of the Amazon River marked by a series of rapids and waterfalls. Between 2011 and 2012 some of the rapids were submerged by two hydroelectric dams. Upstream and downstream of the rapids are two sub-basins Mamoré/Guaporé and lower Madeira, respectively. Using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers, we estimated genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, and gene flow between sub-basins and tested if the rapids functioned as barriers limiting the gene flow for this species of catfish. We identified three population clusters, one representing the individuals from the Mamoré/Guaporé sub-basin (upstream) and the other two representing the individuals from the lower Madeira sub-basin (downstream). The rapids restricted but did not block gene flow, which corroborates a clinal pattern of genetic differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
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