Abstract
In Korean waters, there are two color types (blue and purple) of the blue crab Portunus trituberculatus. The blue type is common, but the ratio of the purple type has increased in landings. To determine whether there were significant morphometric or genetic differences between the blue and purple types, crabs caught from the West Sea of Korea were examined. Based on covariance analysis, there were significant differences in 1 of 10 morphometric characteristics of males between the two types, in none of the ten characteristics for females. Using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) DNA fingerprinting, no specific AFLP marker was detected for each type. The heterozygosity and genetic diversity were very low. Analyses of pairwise distance, the Fst index, and genetic similarity revealed similar results, with very low genetic differentiation. Therefore, there is no significant difference between blue and purple types of the crab from the West Sea of Korea, and the two types in the West Sea can be managed as one stock.
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