Abstract
ABSTRACT Electrophoretic analysis of 17 loci coding for 15 enzymes was used to investigate the genetic variation and relationships among 7 species of Penaeus and 3 species of Metapenaeus from the South China Sea. The proportion of polymorphic loci (P0.95) ranges from 0.059-0.235 and observed heterozygosity from 0.007-0.049, indicating low genetic variability in the shrimps. The phenetic dendrogram based on Nei's genetic distance comprises 2 clusters, one consisting of species of Penaeus and the other species of Metapenaeus. Among Metapenaeus, M. affinis and M. ensis are more closely related to each other than to M. joyneri. Among Penaeus, P. (Penaeus) monodon and P. (P.) semisulcatus are closely related. P. (Fenneropenaeus) merguiensis and P. (F.) penicillatus are also closely related, but P. (F.) chinensis is more related to species of the subgenus Penaeus than to the other species of Fenneropenaeus. P. (Marsupenaeus) japonicus and P. (Melicertus) latisulcatus cluster together. The large distance value between these 2 species supports their subgenus separation. The results of this study show that the current subgeneric division of Penaeus appears to be a natural one.
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