Strong genetic differentiation of banana shrimp Penaeus merguiensis in Thai waters revealed by mitochondrial Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I polymorphism

The information on genetic diversity and intraspecific population subdivision is important for the construction of appropriate fishery management and breeding programs of banana shrimp Penaeus merguiensis. Here, wild P. merguiensis in Thai waters originated from Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chonburi, Pattani, Rayong and Trat located in the Gulf of Thailand (east), and Trang and Krabi located in the Andaman Sea (west) were collected (n = 196) and genetically analyzed using Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I polymorphism. Relatively high genetic diversity (38 haplotypes, Hd and π = 0.000–0.876 & 0.000–0.024 for eastern and 0.000–0.714 & 0.000–0.002 for western populations, averaged Hd and π = 0.818 and 0.019, respectively) was observed. Nucleotide divergence between populations was 0.001 (between Trang-Krabi) –0.037 (between Nakhon Si Thammarat-the Andaman populations). FST statistics revealed genetic differentiation between all pairwise comparisons of examined populations (p < 0.0001). Analysis of molecular variance following phylogenetic grouping indicated significant variance components between individuals within populations (p < 0.0001), between populations within groups (p < 0.0001) and between phylogenetic groups (p = 0.0059). The information obtained is useful for natural resource management and for the establishment of our on-going breeding programs for genetic improvement of P. merguiensis.