Population genetic structure and demographic history of the mudskipper Boleophthalmus pectinirostris on the northwestern pacific coast

The genetic structure and demographic history of nine mudskipper Boleophthalmus pectinirostris populations on the Northwestern Pacific coast were investigated using the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences. Among the 248 individuals examined, 118 haplotypes were detected. As a whole, high haplotype diversity and moderate nucleotide diversity were observed within the populations. The topology of the neighbor-joining tree of B. pectinirostris haplotypes was assigned into two closely related lineages (A and B) that appeared to have strong geographic genetic structure. Lineage A included the populations from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Vietnam while Lineage B included populations from Japan and Korea. The pairwise comparisons of F ST were all statistically significant ( P