Genetic diversity of mud crabs, Scylla tranquebarica in Sabah, Malaysia based on Cytochrome C Oxidase (COI) gene sequence

• Main Authors: Nurul Ain Mohd Sharif, Noor Amalia Shaiful Kahar, Kenneth Rodrigues, Julian Ransangan, Annita Yong Seok Kian
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: SB Plant culture
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/21502/1/Genetic%20diversity%20of%20mud%20crabs%2C%20Scyllatranquebarica%20in%20Sabah%2C%20Malaysiabased%20on%20Cytochrome%20C%20Oxidase%20%28COI%29%20gene%20sequence.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/21502/7/Genetic%20diversity%20of%20mud%20crabs%2C%20scylla%20tranquebarica%20in%20Sabah%2C%20Malaysia%20based%20on%20cytochrome%20C%20oxidase%20%28COI%29%20gene%20sequence.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/21502/

Mud crabs genus Scylla are distributed across the Indo-West Pacific Oceans. Among the four species, S. tranquebaricadominates the mangrove areas in Sabah, Malaysia and constitutes the primary crustacean fishery resource. Overexploitationof this economically important fisheries resource can have a significant impact on population diversity. This study wasconducted to evaluate the genetic diversity of S. tranquebarica from five important fishing grounds. The genetic diversitywas estimated based on the cytochrome c oxidase (COI) gene sequence. A total of 143 individuals were sampled across the5 fishing grounds. The findings revealed that the crabs in Sabah comprised 11 haplotypes with a mean haplotype diversity(h)of 0.5564 and a mean nucleotide diversity () of 0.0038. The molecular variance analysis (AMOVA) showed that the lowgenetic differentiation among crab individuals in the five fishing grounds. The low genetic diversity provides the basis forthe establishment of a scientific breeding program to counteract the loss of genetic diversity which is the result of over-exploitation of this ecologically and economically important fisheries resource