Summary:The Atlantic goliath grouper is a critically endangered species that inhabits estuarine and reef environments and is threatened primarily by fishing activities and habitat destruction. Despite the urgent need for protection, its genetic conservation status remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the gene flow among the populations of the species along the coast of Brazil based on the control region of the mitochondrial DNA. The results indicate low haplotype diversity (0.40-0.86) and very low nucleotide diversity (0.1-0.5%). They also show that the genetic diversity of the species varies considerably along the coast and that this finding may be especially important for the identification of priority areas for its conservation. The population analyses indicate a low but significant degree of genetic structuring (Φ ST =0.111), probably due to the occurrence of rare haplotypes at some locations, although the genetic differentiation between sites was not correlated with geographic distance (r=0.0501; p=0.7719), and the shared haplotypes indicate that gene flow occurs among all locations along the Brazilian coast. The results of the pairwise F ST indicate a high degree of genetic differentiation between locations. The incipient population structuring detected in the present study is not related systematically to the geological or physical features of the Brazilian coast. The complex interaction of fluctuations in sea level, marine currents, and the reproductive characteristics of the species hampers the identification of the specific role of each of these processes in the gene flow dynamics of the population units of the Atlantic goliath grouper. The low overall levels of genetic diversity, the pairwise F ST values and the significant population structuring among groups (Φ CT ) identified in the present study all reinforce the critically endangered status of the species and are inconsistent with the presence of a single, panmictic population of groupers on the Brazilian coast. The results of this study suggest that, though it may be incipient, the observed genetic structuring must be taken into account in order to prevent potential problems, such as outbreeding depression, in the management of wild stocks.Keywords: critically endangered species; gene flow; genetic diversity; marine fish; western Atlantic Ocean.Evidencias en el ADN mitocondrial reflejan una incipiente estructuración poblacional en el mero guasa del Atlántico (Epinephelus itajara, Epinephelidae) en Brasil Resumen: El mero guasa del Atlántico está críticamente en peligro, habita en ambientes estuarinos y arrecifes, los cuáles están amenazados principalmente por las actividades de pesca y la destrucción de su hábitat. A pesar de la necesidad urgente de protección, su estado de conservación genética aún es desconocido. El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar el flujo génico entre las poblaciones de esta especie a lo largo de la costa de Brasil analizando la variabilidad genética de la región control del ADN mitocondrial....
Population structure and genetic connectivity are pivotal contributions to the establishment of conservation strategies for fisheries management, in particular for highly migratory species that are affected by commercial fisheries. This study used partial sequences of mitochondrial DNA control region to determine the genetic structure of the bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. A total of 858 base pairs of mtDNA CR from 228 individuals were analyzed. The resulting nucleotide diversity (p) was 0.0011 ± 0.0008 and the haplotype diversity (h) was 0.127 ± 0.030. These are the lowest diversities registered in elasmobranchs with this genetic marker. Two genetically distinct lineages were identified, one of them represented by 3.9% of the analyzed individuals and none restricted to any particular area. Simulated scenarios of population structure, tested with AMOVA and pairwise U ST did not result in significant values indicating high connectivity among all sampled groups. The absence of population structure, even between Atlantic and Indian Oceans, corroborates the high dispersal ability of this species. The low genetic diversity detected in this species and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (
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