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Population genetics of the swimming crab Callinectes bellicosus (Brachyura: Portunidae) from the eastern Pacific Ocean

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Abstract

The population genetics and historical demography of the swimming crab Callinectes bellicosus from the eastern Pacific were assessed using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from portions of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cytb) genes. Analysis of molecular variance of sequence data from crabs collected from nine localities, ranging from the upper to lower Gulf of California and the outer coast of the Baja California peninsula, revealed an absence of population structure, suggesting a high level of gene flow over a wide geographic area. Maximum-likelihood estimates of long-term effective population size obtained with the program FLUCTUATE, in addition to highly significant values obtained from neutrality tests (Tajima’s D, Fu and Li’s D, and Fu’s FS) and mismatch analysis, are consistent with a population expansion dating to the Pleistocene epoch. Phylogenetic analysis of C. bellicosus sequences using both neighbor-joining and Bayesian methods revealed a widely distributed subclade (clade II) cryptically embedded at low frequency in the main (clade I) population. Although sequence divergence between the two clades was low (1.1% COI; 0.6% Cytb), statistical support for the split was high. The Kimura-2-parameter genetic distance between C. bellicosus and the sympatric and morphologically similar C. arcuatus was high (d=0.17) and similar to the genetic distance between C. bellicosus and the allopatric C. sapidus from the western Atlantic (d=0.18), suggesting an ancient (Miocene) divergence of C. bellicosus and C. arcuatus.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Castañon, O. Morales, E. Ruíz, G. Saad, P. Turk-Boyer and A.H. Weaver for providing samples of eastern Pacific Callinectes, and C. D’Agrosa, D. Rittschof and R. Mayer-Arzuaga for kindly sending samples of C. sapidus from the Atlantic. We also thank L.T. Findley, D. Garrigan, T.A. Markow, M. Mateos, M. Nava, C. Ross, R. C. Vrijenhoek and T. Watts for their help and advice during the course of this study. This research was conducted in compliance with animal care guidelines and was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grant DEB-9510645 to Dr. T.A. Markow, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Gulf of California Programs of the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International.

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  1. L. L. Knowles

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5079, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo A.C., Unidad Guaymas, Apartado Postal 284, 85480, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

    E. Pfeiler

  2. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-4501, USA

    E. Pfeiler

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0088, USA

    L. A. Hurtado & L. L. Knowles

  4. Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C., Bahía Bacochibampo s/n, Lomas de Cortés, 85450, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

    J. Torre-Cosío & L. Bourillón-Moreno

  5. Instituto Nacional de la Pesca, Centro Regional de Investigación Pesquera, Calle 20 no. 605 sur, 85400, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

    J. F. Márquez-Farías & G. Montemayor-López

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  1. E. Pfeiler
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Communicated by P.W. Sammarco, Chauvin

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Pfeiler, E., Hurtado, L.A., Knowles, L.L. et al. Population genetics of the swimming crab Callinectes bellicosus (Brachyura: Portunidae) from the eastern Pacific Ocean. Marine Biology 146, 559–569 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-004-1463-y

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