Genetic variation among the three species of grapsid crabs, Helice tridens latimera, H. tridens tridens and H. leachi

Abstract

Horizontal starch gel electrophoresis was used to estimate the genetic divergence among the three species of grapsid crabs under the genus Helice: H. tridens latimera, H. t. tridens and H. leachi. Eight out of 25 loci coding 15 enzymes were polymorphic: AAT-1^*, AAT2^*, GPI^*, IDHP^*, MDH-1^*, MDH-2^*, PGDH^* and LDH^*. The average proportion of polymorphic loci and heterozygosity were 0.04 and 0.006 in H. t. latimera, 0.07 and 0.005 in H. t. tridens and 0.05 and 0.004 in H. leachi, respectively. Nei's genetic distance was 0.00033 between H. t, latimera and H. t. tridens, 0.16966 between H. t. latimera and H. leachi, and 0.17017 between H. t. tridens and H. leachi. The results indicate that the degree of genetic differentiation is very small between the species of H. t. latimera and H. t. tridens and higher between H. leachi and the other two species.