Genetic Variability in Eight Cultured and Two Wild Populations of Japanese Flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, Based on the Mitochondrial DNA Control Region

Abstract

To examine the present population genetic diversity and variability of Japanese flounder, a 394-bp hypervariable fragment of mtDNA control region was sequenced. A total of 215 individuals from two wild and eight cultured populations were analyzed. The 91 variable sites defined 61 haplotypes and 12 of them were shared. Six single base pair insertion/deletions were detected. The haplotype diversity (h), the nucleotide diversity (π), and mean number of pairwise differences (k) in cultured populations (h = 0.443–0.844; π = 0.010–0.030; k = 3.745–11.838) were obviously lower than those in the wild populations (h = 0.987–0.988; π = 0.032; k = 12.443–12.718). Fixation index (Fst) and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that significant genetic differentiation mainly existed among cultured populations. The results of the exact test of population differentiation (nondifferentiation exact P values) rejected a panmictic mtDNA gene pool in all cultured populations. The results of this study indicated that genetic diversity of cultured Japanese flounder populations in China had significantly declined due to farm propagation and an increase in broodstock number should increase genetic diversity in cultured Japanese flounder base on the genetic theory.