Phylogeography of Nile Tilapia in Africa

Natural populations of the Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus are found in almost all of tropical Africa with seven subspecies described to date. In the present study 16 natural populations of representing all subspecies and seven populations from Lake Victoria, where the species was introduced almost 60 years ago were analysed by means of geomorphometrics, microsatellites and partial sequences of the D-loop region of the mitochondrial DNA. The results allowed inferences on biogeography, phylogenetics and evolutionary history. The species is most likely to have originated in East Africa within the Nile system including Lake Turkana separating early into three groups: the Nile Basin, Lake Tana and Ethiopian Rift Valley. Three cases mtDNA introgressions were observed with O. aureus in West Africa, O. leucostictus in Lake Baringo (Kenya) and an unknown species in the Lake Awasa (Ethiopia). 11 Evolutionary Significant Units were described in the study. Finally, Lake Victoria populations were found to be structured in metapopulations composed of kind related fish

Autorentext

Dorothy Wanja Nyingi graduated at the Univ. of Nairobi where she attained a Bsc. in Zoology in 1998 and a Msc. in Hydrobiology in 2002. She attained a second Msc. in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology and a PhD in 2007 at the Univ. de Montpellier II, France. She has worked for the National Museums of Kenya since 1998 and is now head of Ichthyology