Evolutionary relationship between marble trout of the northern and the southern Adriatic basin

Marble trout (Salmo marmoratus) populate two geographically separated areas in the northern and southern parts of the Adriatic Sea drainage. Although morphologically similar, each population is distinguished by a different set of unrelated mitochondrial haplotypes, suggesting that they have evolved from different ancestors. Due to a possible discordance between mitochondrial and species phylogeny, we performed phylogenetic analysis based on 22 nuclear loci. The results inferred from Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian Inference analysis revealed that northern and southern populations are closely related, forming a monophyletic group. This observation is concordant with the present marble trout classification, which considers both populations as conspecific. On the other hand, our findings are in marked contrast to those of previous mtDNA-based studies and highlight potential dangers of making phylogenetic inferences from mtDNA alone. Reasons for discordance between mtDNA and nDNA phylogeny are discussed with incomplete lineage sorting proposed as the most parsimonious explanation for mtDNA divergence in marble trout.