The age of natural populations is crucial information when studying processes like extinction,colonization, adaptation and evolutionary divergence. Here I evaluate if DNA in lakesediments can be used to date the colonization by whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) in lakes incentral Sweden. Three species-specific primer pairs were designed to detect the presence orabsence of whitefish DNA in sediments from lake Hotagen where I hypothesized thatwhitefish colonized before 1790 but long after the ice-melt 10 000 years ago. By applyingBayesian estimation on binary PCR results, the colonization of whitefish in lake Hotagen wasdated to 2098 – 2632 BP. To examine if DNA could be detected in 10 000 year old sedimentsand if the detection probability declines over time I also analysed the presence of DNA in acore from lake Stora Lögdasjön. DNA was successfully recovered and amplified throughoutthe sediment core with no loss of detection probability from present time to 9535 – 9480 BP. I conclude that species-specific PCR and lake sediment DNA can be used to reconstruct thehistory of natural populations of aquatic organisms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-125387 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Olajos, Fredrik |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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