Significant Genetic Differentiation among Ten Populations of the Razor Clam Sinonovacula constricta along the Coast of China Revealed by a Microsatellite Analysis

摘要

Dong-Hong Niu, Bing-Bing Feng, Da-Bo Liu, Yu-Min Zhong, He-Ding Shen, and Jia-Le Li (2012) Significant genetic differentiation among ten populations of the razor clam Sinonovacula constricta along the coast of China revealed by a microsatellite analysis. Zoological Studies 51(3): 406-414. The razor clam Sinonovacula constricta is a common shellfish in human seafood diets. Little is known about the genetic structure of the species on the coast of China. In this study, the genetic diversity and differentiation of S. constricta from the northern, middle, and southern coasts of China were estimated using 8 microsatellites. The 10 populations possessed high allelic (Ar = 6.0-7.0) and genetic diversities (Ho = 0.737-0.909 and He = 0.836-0.882) across the 8 microsatellite loci. The F-ST analysis indicated significant genetic differentiation (F-ST = 0.044, p < 0.05) among the 10 populations. Two populations in the middle region significantly differed from the remaining populations (F-ST = 0.039-0.125, p < 0.05). Moreover, the phylogenetic Neighbor-joining tree analysis showed that the 10 populations were divided into 2 groups: 1 group included populations in the middle region and 2 populations of the northern region, and the other group consisted of populations in the southern region and the remaining ones from the northern region. Potential reasons for the high genetic diversity and significant population differentiation are discussed. Perhaps, there is a cryptic species according to the significantly high genetic divergence among the 10 populations of S. constricta. http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/51.3/406.pdf