Marine organisms with wide distribution are excellent models for the understanding of historical genetic connectivity patterns. Lutjanus purpureus, or Caribbean snapper, as the species is popularly known, is a marine Teleost belonging to the Family Lutjanidae. The species distribution is from Cuba to the Northeast of Brazil, being often found on rocky and sandy bottoms. It has high economic importance, however there are few studies available on the genetic architecture of the species. Of major goals of this study, the first deals with the development and characterization of the EPIC primers, for population approaches in L. purpureus, and others marine teleosts. The characterization of genomic regions with sufficient polymorphism to population analysis is fundamental for genetic studies with multiple unlinked regions. Were obtained eight primers, and the majority has high levels of genetic variation. EPIC primers have the advantage of being applicable on a wide taxonomic level, thereby these primers were tested and amplified in other taxonomic groups of organisms, so that an indication can be useful in various approaches to intraspecific groups of marine fish. The second main objective was to evaluate issues of genetic diversity, demographics and historical genetic connectivity for L. purpureus using multiple loci (mitochondrial and nuclear DNA). It was found high levels of genetic diversity, probably related to a high effective size presented by species. The Caribbean snapper apparently shows high levels of genetic homogeneity along of the study area, which is consistent with biological traits of species such as spawning in offshore and larval pelagic development. In relation to aspects of historical demography, a population growth scenario is presented, whose beginning is dated about 170,000 years, this period being congruent with a period of glacial maximum to the region of the western Atlantic.
|
