Volume 67
Genetic Population Structure of Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) across the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the offshore Banks of Northern Honduras, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos
Authors
Truelove, N., S. Rosewall, S. Griffiths, M. Davis, A. Stoner, R. Preziosi, and S. Box Download PDF Open PDF in BrowserOther Information
Date: November, 2014
Pages: 435 - 436
Event: Proceedings of the Sixty seven Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute
City: Christ Church
Country: Barbados
Abstract
Understanding ecologically relevant patterns of connectivity is an important factor for improving the management of commercially threatened marine species. We developed novel microsatellites using next generation DNA sequencing technology to perform a comprehensive study of genetic connectivity in the queen conch, Strombus gigas. Paired-end sequencing of DNA from a single queen conch individual was carried out in half a flow cell lane of the Illumina MiSeq platform, yielding a total of 3,481,868 (2 x 1,740,934) 250bp length paired-end reads. Potentially amplifiable loci containing microsatellites were identified with program PAL FINDER v0.02. We used quality filtering in a Galaxy bioinformatics server to sort microsatellite loci by highest quality score. We then selected microsatellites with the highest quality score to analyze genetic variation in 1,152 individuals from a total of 24 sites located in Belize, Hondu-ras, Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos. Genetic analyses provided evidence of population differentiation within multiple sites in Honduras, as well as among populations from each respective Caribbean nation that we sampled. Limited demographic connectivity may explain the significant levels of genetic structuring among the queen conch populations that we studied. Additional research will be required to clarify the spatial and temporal levels of connectivity among queen conch populations throughout the Caribbean.