Zoological Studies

Variation in Mitochondrial DNA Sequences of Black Porgy, Acanthopagrus schlegeli, in the Coastal Waters of Taiwan

Chuen-Tan Jean, Sin-Che Lee, Che-Tsung Chen and Cho-Fat Hui (1998) Mitochondrial DNA sequences that include the 5' end of the D-loop region, the 3' end of the D-loop region, the tRNAPhe gene, and the 5' end of the 12S rRNA gene were determined from 49 specimens of Acanthopagrus schlegeli and 1 specimen of A. australis collected from 7 locations along the coastal waters of Taiwan and Matsu off the coast of mainland China, and from an aquaculture pond. Among 33 haplotypes identified from the 49 mtDNA sequences, there were 32 variable sites, most of which occurred in the 5' end of the D-loop region. Pairwise sequence distances among haplotypes, using the Tamura-Nei model, range between 0.0014 and 0.0127. The phylogenetic tree constructed by use of the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average shows neither significant genealogical branches nor geographic clusters. All of the bootstrap confidence levels resulting from 1000 bootstrap tests are below 50%. Furthermore, the sequencestatistics test reveals little genetic differentiation. Apparently, wild black porgies in the coastal waters of Taiwan and Matsu off the coast of mainland China, belong to a single population. There is no significant genetic differentiation between the wild and pond-cultivated populations.