OPEN ACCESS OJMS Genetic Variability and Population Structure of Ark Shell in Japan

Copyright © 2014 Tomomi Tanaka, Futoshi Aranishi. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attri-bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Tomomi Tanaka, Futoshi Aranishi. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. Ark shell Scapharca kagoshimensis is one of the commercially important bivalve resources in East Asia. In Japan, the mass production method for its natural seedlings was developed in the 1880s, and they had been transplanted to an array of the major fishing areas. It has been therefore concerned with its genetic disturbance among not only current but also former fishing areas in Japan. This study was undertaken to ascertain its genetic diversity and population structure in East Asia by means of nucleotide sequence analysis of a 555-bp portion of the mito-chondrial DNA COI gene. Of 225 individuals collected from 8 populations and 1 population in Japan and Korea, respectively, a total of 59 haplotypes, including 14 common haplotypes, were found, and Japan and Korea shared 3 common haplotypes. In Japan, the haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity ranged from 0.65 to 0.93 and from 0.22 % to 0.59%, respectively, reflecting relatively high levels of genetic diversity. The values in Korea were determined to be 0.45 % and 0.19%, respectively, indicating significantly lower genetic diversity compared wit