Biology and Management of Dogfish Sharks

20. The Molecular Ecology of Dogfish Sharks

Lorenz Hauser

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874073.ch21

Abstract.—The molecular ecology of many elasmobranchs, including dogfish, is still in its infancy, with phylogeographic, population genetic, and mating structure data restricted to a few species. Here, I describe the applications of molecular genetic methods, in sharks in general and in dogfish specifically, to issues ranging from broad-scale vertebrate phylogenies to taxonomic problems, identification of population structure and multiple paternity, and, as an outlook, genome-enabled investigations. New molecular data from dogfish are also presented. Sequence data suggest two distinct clades of dogfish in the North Pacific and Atlantic/South Pacific whose taxonomic position is uncertain but which represent independent evolutionary lineages. No genetic differentiation was detected in populations in the northeast Pacific, though the evolutionary dynamics of molecular markers indicate that ecologically independent populations may still exist. A recent collection of large amounts of sequence data from coding genes of dogfish provides exciting opportunities for future research, which should be carried out in close integration with ecological and environmental data.