Volume 59

Flujo Genético del Caracol Rosado Strombus gigas en el Caribe Mexicano


Authors
Perez-Enriquez, R., Mendoza, G., Gutierrez, T.
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Date: November, 2006


Pages: 644


Event: Proceedings of the Fifty Nine Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute


City: Belize City


Country: Belize

Abstract

The economic importance of queen conch fishery requires detailed information about the biology of its population. The knowledge of the gene flow prevailing along the distribution area of the species is particularly important due to the possibility that the fishery resource is shared among several countries along the Caribbean Sea. In this study, a population genetics analysis of Strombus gigas was performed in three locations of the Mexican Caribbean: Banco Chinchorro, Cozumel and Arrecife Alacranes. The study was based on two mtDNA regions through two methodological approaches: RFLPs of Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I (COI) and direct sequencing of Cytochrome b (Cyt-b). The results revealed medium to high genetic diversity at the three locations with both methodologies, indicating that overfishing has not caused yet a significant loss of the gene pool. The analysis of haplotypic frequencies and population differentiation showed non significant values of Fst. Non specific associations between sequences and locations in a Neighbor Joining dendrogram were neither found. These findings mean gene flow is enough to avoid population differentiation and thus that there are no evidences to consider that the Mexican Caribbean queen conch population is subdivided. However, a gradient in the haplotypic frequencies of both COI and Cyt-b coincident with the geographic position of the study sites was observed, indicating a probable isolation-by-distance trend. The implications of these findings in the management of the fishery in both Mexico and the rest of the Caribbean are discussed

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