Genetic structure of silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus (Euphrasen, 1788)) in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and South China Sea as indicated by mitochondrial COI gene sequences

The silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus) is a commercially important species native to the Indo-western Pacific area. In the present study, the genetic structure of five P. argenteus populations from the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and South China Sea were investigated using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. All populations showed high levels of haplotype diversity (h) and low levels of nucleotide diversity (pi). Phylogenetic trees indicated that the haplotypes could be divided into three clusters, indicating the geographic distribution of the five populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated the intra-region variation among these populations to be highly significant. The average pairwise differences and F-st values among the three regions were also found to be significant. These results suggest that P. argenteus in these regions has strong geographic genetic structure. The present results provide new information for the genetic assessment, fishery management, and conservation of this species.