Population genetic structure and demographic history of Pampus argenteus in the Indo-West Pacific inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences

Population genetic structure and historical demography of Pampus argenteus in three areas (the South China Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal) of the Indo-West Pacific were evaluated using mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences. The net Tumura and Nei genetic distance among the three regions ranged from 0.023 to 0.034. The fixation index analysis showed that significant genetic divergence occurred among the populations from different geographical regions. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) reveals that intraregion variation among the populations was highly significant. The average pairwise differences and phi(ST) values (0.885-0.939) among the three regions were significant. The populations have high haplotype diversity (Hd, 0.736-0.947) and low nucleotide diversity (pi, 0.141-0.586%). The results suggest that P. argenteus has strong geographic genetic structures. In addition, mismatch distribution analyses and tests of neutral evolution imply that a late Pleistocene population expansion may have happened in all populations. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.