Population structure of the Atlantic sand fiddler crab Uca pugilator along the eastern coast of US revealed by molecular data

Abstract

Abstract The Atlantic sand fiddler crab Uca pugilator is an extremely abundant crab found along the eastern coast of the United States. Fiddler crabs have a life cycle with an obligatory planktonic larval phase of 30 - 90 days, which might be expected to lead to widespread larval dispersal and consequent genetic homogeneity over considerable distances. However, a large amount of morphological and behavioral variation is found between northern and southern populations along the eastern coast. This study was undertaken to determine the population genetic structure of U. pugilator and to determine whether these differences may have a genetic basis. The population structure of the fiddler crab was analyzed using 472 individuals collected from 12 sites along the eastern coast. PCR-based single stand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) was used to investigate between-site variation in the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene of these individuals. Analysis of genetic variation indicated frequent gene flow between nearby localities' but much reduced levels between populations separated by larger geographic distances. Thus, despite the potential for high dispersal by planktonic larvae, population differentiation and isolation by distance is evident between northern and southern populations of U. pugilator. A high amount of genetic differentiation (FST = 0.3468) was found between northern and southern regions suggesting that the morphological and behavioral differences between these two regions have a genetic basis and may represent subspecies.