Investigating the extent of parallelism in morphological and genomic divergence among lake trout ecotypes in Lake Superior

Understanding the emergence of species through the process of ecological speciation is a central question in evolutionary biology which also has implications for conservation and management. Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) is renowned for the occurrence of different ecotypes linked to resource and habitat use throughout North America. We aimed to unravel the fine genetic structure of the four Lake Trout ecotypes in Lake Superior. A total of 486 individuals from four sites were genotyped at 6822 filtered SNPs using RADseq technology. Our results revealed different extent of morphological and genetic differentiation within the different sites. Overall, genetic differentiation was weak but significant and was on average three times higher between sites (Mean FST = 0.016) than between ecotypes within sites (Mean FST = 0.005) indicating higher level of gene flow or a more recent shared ancestor between ecotypes within each site than between populations of the same ecotype. Evidence of dive...通过生态物种形成过程解析物种起源，是进化生物学领域的核心议题之一，同时对物种保护与资源管理具有重要实践意义。湖红点鲑（Lake Trout, *Salvelinus namaycush*）因在北美全域存在与资源利用、栖息地选择相关的多种生态型而广受关注。本研究旨在解析苏必利尔湖内4种湖红点鲑生态型的精细遗传结构。研究团队利用限制性位点相关DNA测序技术（Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing, RADseq），对采自4个采样位点的486尾个体完成了6822个经过滤单核苷酸多态性（Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, SNP）位点的基因分型工作。研究结果显示，不同采样位点内的形态与遗传分化程度各异。整体而言，遗传分化程度较弱但具有统计学显著性；采样位点间的平均遗传分化水平（平均固定指数Fixation Index, FST=0.016）约为位点内生态型间的3倍（平均FST=0.005），这表明各采样位点内生态型间的基因流水平更高，或是其共享祖先的时间晚于同一生态型的不同种群间。有关[原文此处内容未完成]的证据