Abstract

Here, we show the development and evaluation of bioinformatic analyses for the mitochondrial genome assembly, and for the detection of mitochondrial molecular markers for phylogeographic studies in the Caribbean king crab Mith-rax spinosissimus (Brachyura: Decapoda: Mithracidae). This crab is an overexploited species that inhabit coral and rocky reef ecosystems from the Caribbean sea and the Florida Keys in USA. The purpose of this work is focused in the conservation genetics of this species because of their ecological -biological control of benthonic algae- and economical -in artisanal fisheries in the caribbean sea-, features that they play into the ecosystems where they inhabit. Collec-tions of M. spinosissimus muscle tissue were taken from October 2011 to March 2012, in three different coral and rocky reef ecosystems in Colombia. Genome sequencing and assembly from one of the Colombian specimens were obtained by using the NGS technology GS-FLX 454. Mitochondrial DNA genome organization was per-formed and it was compared with information from genetic databases -GenBank, NCBI. We found 13 protein-coding mitochondrial genes, two rRNAs, 22 tRNAs, and a putative mitochondrial control region. We also amplified sequenc-es from the mitochondrial regions COI and control region (1200 bp each, approximately), and we found too a prelimi-nary population genetic structure of M. spinosissimus in the Colombian islands. We expect to generate data from the molecular ecology and evolutionary aspects of M. spinosissimus to be useful in conservation genetics for this spe-cies. Also, we expect to carry out management recommendations derived from the population structure analyses.

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