Meeting Abstract

37.2  Tuesday, Jan. 5  Life history and population genetic structure in live bearing asterinid sea stars KEEVER, Carson C*; HART, Mike W; Simon Fraser University; Simon Fraser University ckeever@sfu.ca

Comparative studies of population genetic structure in sister species with similar life histories can help to determine the role of life history in shaping levels of gene flow and genetic diversity within and between populations. Sea stars in the family Asterinidae have diverse larval forms and life histories, which have evolved multiple times in parallel. We compared the population genetic structure of a pair of sister species from the family Asterinidae in the genus Parvulastra that have similar live bearing hermaphroditic life histories. Using microsatellite markers we investigated levels of genetic connectivity between populations as well as levels of variation within populations. We found that genetic diversity was low in both species relative to other asterinids. However, levels of genetic diversity were higher for Parvulastra parvivipara then for its sister species, suggesting that subtle differences in the life history (eg. mating system) or differences associated with geographic locations of the species play an important role in levels of population variation in this pair.