Genetic population structure of the bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus in the central Pacific Ocean based on mtDNA Cytb sequences

Bigeye tuna Thunnus obesus is considered an important fishery species around the world. There is no adequate genetic data available for the T. obesus population. Polymorphism of sequence variations in mitochondrial Cytb genes were assessed to explore the level of genetic variability and differentiation among eight populations of T. obesus sampled from the central Pacific Ocean. Overall, a total of 44 mtDNA haplotypes and 26 variable sites were detected in the 686 bp segment of mtDNA Cytb gene. Nucleotide diversity ranged from 0.17 to 0.27 % and the haplotype diversity ranged from 0.604 to 0.793. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) test of bigeye tuna revealed that 99.38 % of the genetic variation occurred within populations. Both the maximum likelihood tree and the haplotype network indicated that two lineages of bigeye tuna coexisted in the central Pacific Ocean. Hierarchical AMOVA tests and pairwise analysis revealed no geographical isolation among haplotypes within the two lineages. High Nm values from this investigation indicated high rates of gene flow between the two sampling regions. Furthermore, tests of neutrality and mismatch distribution suggested that T. obesus might have experienced a population expansion, one that possibly occurred 110,000 years ago. Our study firstly unraveled the population genetic structure of the T. obesus in the central Pacific Ocean, and addressed the related fishery management issues including fishery stock identification, management, and conservation.