Estrutura populacional e filogeografia de Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804)

Abstract

Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) is one of the main lobster species in the Atlantic, and one of the largest fisheries in the western Atlantic, with a high commercial value. The heavy exploitation of the species results in much pressure on its populations. Recently, it was discovered that under the name P. argus there are two cryptic species that occur in allopatry, one in the Caribbean and the other on the coast of Brazil. This thesis studies the population genetic structure of those two species with the purpose of providing more information to delimitate stocks for fisheries management, and for understanding the historical processes that have shaped their evolutionary demographic histories. For this, we analysed two mitochondrial markers (control region and the Cytochrome Oxidase I gene) and microsatellite markers of individuals from 7 localities in the Caribbean (Florida, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela) and 11 States of Brazil (Pará, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo). Within each species two different mitochondrial lineages were observed. They occurred throughout their distributions, and it is hypothesized that they were formed from a vicariance event with secondary contact or are the result of a genetic bottleneck followed by expansion. The lineages of P. cf. argus from Brazil were only observed in the mitochondrial control region and were separated approximately 233-288 thousand years ago, and each lineage underwent expansion at different times: the first expanded 100,000 years ago and the second 50,000 years ago. The lineages of the Caribbean species were found for the two mitochondrial markers. They were separated about 1 million years ago and have had the same expansion time, 50,000 years. Microsatellites revealed no population subdivision for either species, but the molecular markers together suggest a differential gene flow between localities exposed to different currents. Since these lobsters are heavily exploited, it is important to be conservative when defining their fishing stocks. For the species from Brazil, two fishing stocks are suggested, the first from Pará to Bahia States and the second from Southern Bahia to São Paulo State. For the species of the Caribbean, our data give support to the four stocks suggested by FAO (North, South, North Central and South Central).