The European whitefish Coregonus lavaretus complex represents one of the most diverse radiations within salmonids, with extreme morphological and genetic differentiation across its range. Such variation has led to the assignment of many populations to separate species. In Great Britain, the seven native populations of C. lavaretus (two in Scotland, four in England, one in Wales) were previously classified into three species, and recent taxonomic revision resurrected the previous nomenclature. Here we used a dataset of 15 microsatellites to: (1) investigate the genetic diversity of British populations, (2) assess the level of population structure and the relationships between British populations. Genetic diversity was highest in Welsh (H_O = 0.50, A_R = 5.29), intermediate in English (H_O = 0.41–0.50, A_R = 2.83–3.88), and lowest in Scottish populations (H_O = 0.28–0.35, A_R = 2.56–3.04). Population structure analyses indicated high genetic differentiation (global F_ST = 0.388) between all populations but for the two Scottish populations (F_ST = 0.063) and two English populations (F_ST = 0.038). Principal component analysis and molecular ANOVA revealed separation between Scottish, English, and Welsh populations, with the Scottish populations being the most diverged. We argue that the data presented here are not sufficient to support a separation of the British European whitefish populations into three separate species, but support the delineation of different ESUs for these populations.

欧洲白鲑Coregonus lavaretus复合体代表鲑鱼体内最多样化的辐射之一，在其整个范围内具有极端的形态和遗传分化。这种变化导致许多种群分配到不同的物种。在大不列颠，拉瓦雷角衣原体的七个土著种群（苏格兰两个，英格兰四个，威尔士一个）以前被分类为三个物种，最近的分类修订又恢复了先前的命名。在这里，我们使用了15个微卫星的数据集来：（1）研究英国人口的遗传多样性，（2）评估人口结构的水平以及英国人口之间的关系。威尔士人的遗传多样性最高（_HO  = 0.50，A_R  = 5.29），英语为中级（H _O  = 0.41-0.50，A _R  = 2.83-3.88），最低的是苏格兰人口（H _O  = 0.28-0.35，A _R  = 2.56-3.04）。人口结构分析表明 ，除两个苏格兰人口（F _ST  = 0.063）和两个英国人口（F _ST）外，所有人口之间存在很高的遗传分化（全球F _ST = 0.388） = 0.038）。主成分分析和分子方差分析表明，苏格兰，英语和威尔士人口之间存在差异，苏格兰人口之间的差异最大。我们认为，此处提供的数据不足以支持将英国欧洲白鲑种群分为三个单独的物种，但支持针对这些种群划分不同的ESU。