Characterisation of 30 microsatellite loci for the Tehuelche scallop, Aequipecten tehuelchus (d’Orbigny, 1842) and their use for estimating demographic parameters relevant to fisheries management

ABSTRACT

Aequipecten techuelchus is an endemic scallop of the Argentine biogeographic province in the southwest Atlantic Ocean which supports a commercial fishery that has presented strong fluctuations since the 1960s. It is unclear if distinct localities constitute a single panmictic population. We used next-generation sequencing to obtain microsatellite loci that could be used to evaluate genetic diversity and differentiation among populations. We developed 30 polymorphic microsatellite loci, of which 13 meet the standard criteria required for population genetic analyses, including Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, not being linked and with a low frequency of null alleles. The described microsatellite loci were used to estimate relatedness and effective population size, and to test for recent and historic population bottlenecks. Our results suggest that the population of the Tehuelche scallop from San Román, Gulf of San José, Patagonia shows a relatively large effective population size, high levels of genetic polymorphism, low levels of inbreeding and no signs of recent or historic drastic population reductions. These preliminary results should be confirmed with larger sample sizes and the inclusion of other nearby populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Bottleneck
• connectivity
• effective population size
• Gulf of San José
• metapopulation
• Patagonia

Acknowledgements

JFDC currently holds a postdoctoral research grant from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT). We acknowledge P. Fiorda, Jose Ascorti, R. Vera, F. Quiroga, F. Irigoyen, J. Rúa, K. Vargas and S. L Sotak for assistance with field and laboratory work. We thank an anonymous reviewer for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We appreciate the collaboration received from the artisanal fishing community, particularly J. Ascorti and P. Proquieta. We collected Tehuelche scallop samples under permit DISPOSICION N 042 SsCyAP/14 to AP.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

José Francisco Domínguez-Contreras http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4081-9630

Additional information

Funding

We thank The David and Lucile Packard Foundation [#2015–62798], ‘Agencia nacional de promoción científica y tecnológica’ from Argentina [PICT 2012-#1331] and the Argentine Council from Scientific and Technical Research [CONICET PIP 2013–2015 11220120100152CO].