Effects of artificial selection practices on loss of genetic diversity in the Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai

The Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai Ino, is one of most important aquaculture species in China. Artificial selection has been the common and inevitable approach in breeding. In present study, the effect of artificial selection on the genetic structure of two abalone lines (JJ selection strain, three successive selection lines based on the fast-growing trait, which was named JJF0, JJF1, JJF2, and JJF3; and R selection strain, the offspring of the red shell colored variants) were evaluated using 10 microsatellites. Loci showed from low to high polymorphism, with the number of alleles (A) ranging from 2 to 18 in each population. The mean observed (H-o) and expected heterozygosities (H-e) were 0.650 +/- 0.022 and 0.711 +/- 0.018, respectively. In selection strain JJ, the values for most diversity genetic indexes (A(e), the number of effective alleles, H-o and H-e) decreased from JJF0 to JJF3. Meanwhile, compared to JJ line, the genetic diversity estimates of R were close to those of JJF3. Nei's genetic distance ranged from 0.20357 to 0.51346. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean tree based on Nei's genetic distance also showed that the control Japan population and JJF0 formed to a cluster firstly, which were subsequently grouped together with JJF1, JJF2, JJF3, whereas the R was isolated from the rest of the populations. Analysis of genetic information indicated that genetic diversity was lost with artificial selection practices. Mechanisms underlying the maintenance of an acceptable level of genetic diversity while pursuing economic interests should be conducted in future research studies.