Genetic Variation in Wild and Cultured Populations of the Sea Squirt Halocynthia roretzi Inferred from Microsatellite DNA Analysis

We used nine microsatellite DNA markers to estimate genetic variation among wild and cultured populations of the sea squirt Halocynthia roretzi. The loci were polymorphic, with 6-32 alleles, and allelic richness ranged from 6.0 to 26.1 in each population. The wild and the cultured populations had similar mean heterozygosities (HO and HE), allele numbers, and allelic richness. One cultured population with softness syndrome had a lower mean in the observed heterozygosity (HO = 0.57) and higher mean inbreeding coefficient (F IS = 0.261) than any other populations. This suggests that the loss of genetic variation in the diseased population might be due to increased inbreeding. A neighbor-joining tree and pairwise population estimates of FST showed moderate genetic differentiation between the wild and the cultured populations. Additionally, the softness syndrome population was genetically divergent from wild populations, but it was genetically close to the cultured populations.