Characterization of 30 microsatellite loci for the Tehuelche scallop, Aequipecten tehuelchus (d?Orbigny, 1842) and their use for estimating demographic parameters relevant to fisheries management

FRANCISCO DOMÍNGUEZ-CONTRERAS; ADRIAN MUNGUÍA-VEGA; LEANDRO GETINO-MAMET; GASPAR SORIA; ANA MARÍA PARMA

MOLLUSCAN RESEARCH

MAGNOLIA PRESS

Lugar: Auckland; Año: 2017

1323-5818

Aequipecten techuelchus is an endemic scallop of the Argentine biogeographicprovince in the southwest Atlantic Ocean that supports a commercial fishery that haspresented strong fluctuations since the 1960´s. It is unclear if distinct localitiesconstitute a single panmictic population. We used next- generation sequencing toobtain microsatellite loci that could be used to evaluate genetic diversity anddifferentiation among populations. We developed 30 polymorphic microsatellite loci, ofwhich 13 loci meet standard criteria required for population genetic analyses, includingHardy Weinberg equilibrium, not being linked and with a low frequency of null alleles.The described microsatellite loci were used to estimate relatedness, effectivepopulation size and test for recent and historic population bottlenecks. Our resultssuggest that the population of Tehuelche scallop from San Román, gulf of San José,Patagonia, shows a relatively large effective population size, high levels of geneticpolymorphism, low levels of inbreeding and no signs of recent or historic drasticpopulation reductions. These preliminary results should be confirmed with largersample sizes and including other nearby populations.