Abstract
The degree of population subdivision among collections of young-of-the-year (YOY) Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus maculatus sampled from along the Atlantic coast of the United States (Atlantic) and Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) was examined. Young-of-the-year were collected from spawning areas to minimize possible mixing among putative spawning stocks that may occur at later life history stages along migratory pathways or at over-wintering grounds. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) ND4 region and a nuclear actin intron was conducted. Collections in each of two years were analyzed to minimize bias associated with sampling at a single point in space or time. Substantial variation was detected at ND4 (haplotype diversity=0.81) and at the actin intron locus (gene diversity=0.21). Significant differences in gene diversity or allele frequencies were not detected among temporal samples at any of three locations. A homogeneous distribution of genetic variance among samples from widely spaced geographic regions was consistent with the hypothesis that Spanish mackerel comprise a single intermingling genetic stock. Power analysis showed that the mitochondrial analysis from this study was much more likely to detect population subdivision than analysis of the nuclear actin locus, despite lower mtDNA sample size.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received: 3 January 2000 / Accepted: 28 August 2000
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Buonaccorsi, V., Starkey, E. & Graves, J. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analysis of population subdivision among young-of-the-year Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) from the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Marine Biology 138, 37–45 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270000439
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270000439