Nucleotide diversity and Pleistocene population expansion in Atlantic and Mediterranean scallops (Pecten maximus and P. jacobaeus) as revealed by the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene

Atlantic (Pecten maximus) and Mediterranean (Pecten jacobaeus) scallops have been traditionally considered as distinct species, but recent genetic studies have shown that they are races or subspecies separated by the Almeria-Oran oceanographic front in SE Spain. We have scored the nucleotide polymorphism of a 511 base pairs long fragment of the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene in 85 individuals from 4 populations of P. maximus and 3 of P. jacobaeus. The populations were characterized by sharing the 2 most common haplotypes. We found no significant differences in haplotype frequencies among populations or species. However, slight, significant differentiation between taxa appeared when haplotypes were pooled in two groups according to their phylogenetic relationships and after analysis of molecular variance, in agreement with previous allozyme studies. Levels of within-population nucleotide diversity were similar in all populations except in P. jacobaeus from the northern Adriatic Sea, suggesting a smaller effective population size in that area which could be due to variable recruitment. Finally, populations showed an excess of rare haplotypes. The mismatch distribution and several population genetic statistics indicate that the excess of rare variants is due to a population expansion which occurred in the second half of the Pleistocene period, less than 0.9 my before present, and probably well after the origin of the two scallop races.