Phylogeographic pattern of Liza affinis populations in Chinese coastal waters: estimation of larval dispersal potential

Abstract

To examine phylogeographic pattern of Liza affinis populations in Chinese coastal waters, eight geographic populations were collected and analyzed using sequence analysis based on the first hypervariable region of mitochondrial control region. A total of 117 haplotypes from eight populations were obtained from 223 individuals and 22 of them were shared among different populations. High values of haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were observed for eight populations. The topology of the NJ tree was shallow, and there were no significant genealogical branches or clusters corresponding to sampling localities. The values of pairwise F_st ranged from −0.009 to 0.171 and most of them were not statistically significant after sequential Bonferroni correction. The results of LAMARC also indicated no significant population genetic structure in L. affinis along the Chinese coast. The demographic history of Liza affinis examined by neutrality tests and mismatch distribution analysis suggested a population expansion event dating back to late Pleistocene. The potential larval dispersal ability coupled with the present ocean currents and the late Pleistocene environment should be responsible for the present phylogeographic pattern of Liza affinis.

Keywords:

• Liza affinis
• control region
• larval dispersal
• genetic diversity
• historical demography

Acknowledgements

The field studies did not involve any endangered or protected species. Liza affinis is not protected by Chinese law. No fishing license was required for collection of samples from all locations. It is a commercial harvested species in China. The fish were collected by trawling by local fishermen for commercial purposes and were already dead when collected. No of the authors was involved in the collection of the fish. Animal Ethics Committee approval was not needed because no handing of live animals was involved.

We thank Dr. Dianrong Sun, Dr. Yuan Li, Dr. Liangmin Huang, Mr. Binbin Shan, Mr. Long Yan for providing samples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41506158, 41776171].