Genetic effects of released swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus) on wild populations inferred from mitochondrial control region sequences

Abstract

Along the coast of Shandong Province in China, an extensive hatchery-release programme has been conducted for more than 10 years. However, no information has been reported concerning the long-term effects on the wild population resulting from the release of large numbers of juveniles in Portunus trituberculatus. In this study, sequence variation of swimming crab P. trituberculatus based on the mitochondrial control region was investigated for 946 swimming crabs at the releasing sites from 2012 to 2014. The result showed that the wild P. trituberculatus was characterized by high genetic diversity indices, and not significantly different from the previous study. Low F_ST values were estimated among the groups of different years and different sites, which suggested no genetic differentiation found in the wild population after the stock enhancement programme. Hence, the long-term extensive hatchery release programme has not affected the genetic structure of wild P. trituberculatus populations along the coast of Shandong Province.

Keywords:

• Control region
• genetic effects
• Portunus trituberculatus
• stock enhancement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program) [No. 2015CB453302], National Natural Science Foundations of China [No. 31302187], Special Scientific Research Funds for Central Non-profit Institutes [No. 2015TS26], International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China [No. 2015DFR30450] and Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean [No. 201505025].