Loss of Genetic Diversity in the Cultured Stocks of the Large Yellow Croaker, Larimichthys crocea, Revealed by Microsatellites

Abstract

The large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) is the most important mariculture fish species in China and the wild stocks of this croaker have collapsed in the past decades due to high fishing pressure and habitat degradation. Due to a lack of wild croaker samples, however, studies concerning the genetic changes of the cultured croaker stocks compared to their wild counterparts were never conducted. Here, we collected three wild populations in the northern and central East China Sea during fisheries survey and investigated the differences in terms of genetic diversity and differentiation between and within cultured stocks and wild populations. Our results demonstrated that the cultured croaker had significantly reduced genetic diversity in contrast to the wild populations, and also presented statistically significant differentiation from the wild, indicating that enhancement of the current wild stock should be conducted with caution. These changes may be caused by founder effects, artificial selection and random genetic drift. With a relatively high level of genetic diversity, the wild populations showed important value for improving the ongoing breeding program of this croaker. Further, we detected no differentiation among the wild populations, suggesting that the wild croaker in the northern and central East China Sea should be considered as one unit for management and conservation.

Loss of genetic variability in the captive stocks of tambaqui,Colossoma macropomum(Cuvier, 1818), at breeding centres in Brazil, and their divergence from wild populations

“…A reduction in genetic variability resulting from the domestication process has been observed in a number of fish species, such as Salmo salar (Norris, Bradley, & Cunningham, ), Haliotis discus (Hara & Sekino, ), Hyriopsis cumingii (Li, Wang & Bai, ), Acanthopagrus schlegelli (An, Hong, Lee, Park, & Kim, ), Larimichthys crocea (Wang, Shi, Su, Meng, & Lin, ), Ruditapes philippinarum (Xing, Gao, & Li, ) and Perca fluviatilis (Ben Khadher, Fontaine, Milla, Agnèse, & Teletchea, ). In general, the founder effect appears to be the principal cause of the loss of genetic variability in fish farms (Glover et al., ).…”

Reduced Genetic Diversity in the Clown Anemonefish Amphiprion ocellaris in Exploited Reefs of Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

“…Fin-clipping is a non-destructive, minimally invasive and the most commonly used method to obtain tissue from living fishes in the wild (e.g., Almany et al, 2007;Planes et al, 2009;SaenzAgudelo et al, 2011) and in aquaculture (e.g., Wang et al, 2012). We took great care to minimize harm, and ensured survival by safely releasing the fishes back into their host anemones.…”

Impacts of stocking on the genetic diversity of Colossoma macropomum in central Amazon, Brazil

“…The UFAM and Rio Preto da Eva stocks are more recent and are formed primarily by breeders from natural populations of the Rio Negro. Cropped stocks can lose genetic diversity due to founder effects, artificial selection, genetic drift, inadequate cross-mating strategies, or unbalanced sex ratios (Machado-Schiaffino et al, 2007;Wang et al, 2012).…”