Taxonomical Status and Origin of Some Ecological Forms of Whitefish <i>Coregonus lavaretus </i>(L.) from Water Bodies of Siberia
A genetic analysis of some ecological forms belonging to the Coregonus lavaretus (L.) complex from different water bodies of Siberia was performed. As a result, a high degree of the differentiation between them has been revealed. The analysis of variation of the protein coding gene ND1 of mitochondrial DNA showed that the described earlier as ecological forms C. anaulorum, C. fluviatilis and cisco-like whitefish from Baunt Lake are good species. At the same time, mtDNA of each ecological forms consists of several phylogenetic lineages, one of which is species-specific. As a rule, other lineages have mtDNA haplogroups of the whitefishes, which are widespread in the region. It was shown that the formation of the ecological forms of the Siberian pidschi- an-like whitefishes have been followed by the introgressive hybridization. We suggested that most of modern pidschian -like whitefishes have originated as a result of the reticulate evolution. English translation of the paper published in Russian Journal of Genetics, 2017, Vol. 53, No. 8, is available ONLINE by subscription from: http://www.springer.com/, http://link.springer.com/journal/11177