2024/12/30 by TELAHIGUE, Khaoula, HAJJI, T., RABEH, I. +2
#Aquaculture #Bizerte #Bizerte lagoon #Breeding #DNA #Divergence #Endemic species #Exploitation #Flexopecten glaber #Genetic variation #Lagoons #MED #Marine #Phylogeny #Tunisia
paper · doi:10.71754/instm.bulletin.v44.450
The smooth scallop Flexopecten glaber (Linnaeus, 1758) is an endemic species of the Mediterranean. It has a regional commercial importance (Greece and Turkey). In Tunisia, it is particularly frequent in the lagoon of Bizerte. It is a good candidate species for aquaculture. There are no available data on the genetic diversity of the Tunisian populations of this scallop. For a possible exploitation by breeding, a genetic characterization is necessary in order to determine the state of the genetic resources which are extremely useful for a rational management of this species. For these reasons, we conducted a genetic study based on the sequencing of the 16S mitochondrial DNA of F. glaber. The Neighbor-Joining phylogenetic tree revealed a weak gene flow and a remarkable genetic divergence between the Tunisian, Italian and Greek populations. Data simulated according to the population expansion model of the F. glaber population in the Bizerte lagoon revealed a sudden recent expansion.