Whole-genome sequencing of 84 japanese eels reveals evidence against panmixia and support for sympatric speciation

The Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica), European eel (Anguilla anguilla), and American eel (Anguilla rostrata) are migratory, catadromous, temperate zone fish sharing several common life cycle features. The population genetics of panmixia in these eel species has already been investigated. Our extensive population genetics analysis was based on 1400 Gb of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data from 84 eels. It demonstrated that a Japanese eel group from the Kuma River differed from other populations of the same species. Even after removing the potential adapted/selected single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, and with very small differences (fixation index [Fst] = 0.01), we obtained results consistently indicating that panmixia does not occur in Japanese eels. The life cycle of the Japanese eel is well-established and the Kuma River is in the center of its habitat. Nevertheless, simple reproductive isolation is not the probable cause of non-panmixia in this species. We propose that the combination of spawning area subdivision, philopatry, and habitat preference/avoidance accounts for the non-panmixia in the Japanese eel population. We named this hypothesis the “reproductive isolation like subset mapping” (RISM) model. This finding may be indicative of the initial stages of sympatric speciation in these eels.