Diversidad genética y estructura poblacional del cangrejo del manglar (Ucides occidentalis) en Tumbes, Perú

Mangrove is one of the most threatened coastal ecosystems on earth. Its ecological functioning depends in part of activity of key species Ucides occidentalis. The crab stocks have been overfished in mangroves of Peru. The strong decline of the crab population (up 35.8% in 11 years) may make it necessary to cultivate larvae of this crab to repopulate the mangroves. However, an adequate repopulation requires to know its genetic diversity and genetic population structure. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine these aspects of U. occidentalis in the mangroves of Tumbes, Peru. A total of 56 individuals of U. occidentalis were collected, of which we obtained 42 nucleotide sequences of the gene fragment COI. The results indicated a high level of genetic diversity (as assessed by the haplotypes number: 30, the most frequency of more frequent haplotype: 14.29% and haplotype diversity: 0.9721; nucleotide differences average: 4.396 and nucleotide diversity: 0.00810), and a low population genetic structure evaluated by AMOVA (genetic variability between populations: 4%).