| Abstract: | A biochemical genetic study of the mussels Perna perna and Choromytilus meridionalis on the west coast of South Africa revealed the presence of an unreported mytilid mussel that had previously been mistaken, because of its shell colour polymorphism, for either P. perna or a hybrid between P. perna and C. meridionalis. The gene products of 19 protein-coding loci in P. perna. C. meridionalis and in the newly recognized mussel were examined by means of horizontal starch-gel electrophoresis. The results showed that there was no allele-frequency overlap between any of these mussel taxa, thus implying little or no genetic relatedness between them. A morphological examination showed that the previously unreported mytilid has a pitted resilial ridge (similar to that of Perna), an anterior adductor muscle (unlike either Perna or Choromytilus), and an undivided posterior foot retractor-muscle scar (unlike Perna). Such features are diagnostic of the genus Mytilus. The South African Mytilus has morphological traits that are more characteristic of M. galloprovincialis of the Mediterranean Sea than of the more cosmopolitan M. edulis. which occurs in the northern and southern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. A large heterozygosity in Mytilus sp. argues against a recent dispersal from the Mediterranean Sea via a small founder population. Rather, the presence of Mytilus sp. in South Africa may represent a relict population of a wider geographic distribution of M. galloprovincialis resulting from Pleistocene cooling. However, the warmer water at lower latitudes could have still prevented dispersal of M. edulis, a species adapted to colder waters. |
