Reproductive success andassortative mating among pomoxis species and their hybrids

We investigated the patterns of reproductive isolationand gene flow between crappie species Pomoxis spp. by conducting a series of controlled breeding experiments using both pure parental species and various forms of interspecific hybrids (i.e., F₁, F₂) as parents. To assess relativereproductive success of mating types, progeny from each of three different experimental treatments were assayed for genotypic composition at four diagnostic allozyme loci. In the first experimental treatment, we confirmed the viability and fertility ofF₁ hybrids and observed that genotypic and allelic frequencies among the F₂ progeny departed from predicted Mendelian genotypic proportions. In the second experimentaltreatment, we confirmed that F₃ hybrids can arise from intermating F₂ hybrids. However, the small numberof progeny recovered from experimental ponds suggests that either prezygotic or postzygotic barriers to gene flow had limited reproductive success. In the third experimental treatment, we evaluated the relative reproductive success of the parental species and both reciprocal F₁ hybrids. We rejected the null hypothesis of random mating from equal mixtures of parental and hybrid brood based on a maximum likelihood mixture model estimate of resulting progeny. Within each replicate, one or both parental species were most successful, although F₂ hybrid progeny also occurred more often than expected; first generation hybrids and backcrosses occurred less frequently than expected. These and previously reported observations concerning the viability of hybrids and backcrosses indicate that the two crappie species can interbreed but that they mate assortatively. Because reproductive isolation is imperfect, we caution against intentional mixing or creation of zones of secondary contact between these species.