The degree of genetic divergence of two hundred and seventy eight specimens of the Chinese mudskipper, Periophthalmus cantonensis (Osbeck, 1762) collected from six locations in Taiwan was estimated using starch gel electrophoresis. Fourteen enzymes corresponding to 22 gene loci and 47 alleles were recognized. An average Nei's genetic identity of T= 0.996 (0.993-0.999) indicated highly homogenous protein structure. The proportion of polymorphic loci (0.95 level) varied from 0.0909 to 0.2727 with a mean of 0.1742; expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.028 to 0.065 with a mean of 0.051. The mean Fst differentiation among populations was only 0.0235. However, observed population phenotype numbers partly disagreed with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; this is probably due to some factors that affect the disequilibrium.
Chinese mudskipper population, Isozyme polymorphism, Genetic variation and environmental variability correlation
