Sin, Jonest: Enzyme variation in marine and . . .

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

Enzyme variation in marine and estuarine populations of a mud crab, Macrophthalmus hirtipes (Ocypodidae)

F. Y. T. SIN

M. B. JONESt

Department of Zoology University of Canterbury Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract Protein and enzyme variation in 2 populations of the mud crab Macrophthalmus hirtipes (Jacquinot, 1853) (Ocypodidae) from 1 marine and 1 estuarine habitat were investigated by poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis. A survey of 24 loci revealed that 22 were common to both populations; 20 were monomorphic and 2 were highly polymorphic. Two alleles were detected for each of the polymorphic loci, esterase-2 (EST-2) and ester-ase-3 (EST-3). The frequencies of the EST-3 alleles were similar in the 2 populations. However, the frequencies of the 2 EST-2 alleles in the estuarine population were significantly different from those for the marine population. Expression of 1 locus, esterase-4 (EST-4) was confined to the estuarine population. Two alkaline phosphatase loci (AKPH- 1 and AKPH-2) were detected in the estuarine population, but only AK.PH-1 was found in the marine population. EST-4 and AKPH-2 were neither sex nor age specific. These interpopulational genetic differences may reflect differences in environmental conditions measured between the 2 habitats.

Keywords Macrophthalmus hirtipes; mud crab; enzymes; marine environment; estuaries; Ocypodidae; crabs; population genetics; electrophoresis

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