Genetic structure of the Western Rock Lobster, Panulirus cygnus, with the benefit of hindsight

Allozyme variation was used to investigate the genetic structure of the western rock lobster, Panulirus cygnus, along the coast of Western Australia. The study involved genetic surveys in 1980 and 1994. The first survey showed strong suggestions of latitudinal variation at two polymorphic loci, EST and GPI, but these suggestions were statistically suspect. With the benefit of hindsight gained from 1980, the 1994 survey was designed to examine more directly the suggestion of latitudinal genetic subdivision in this species. No evidence of genetic subdivision was found at either the EST or the GPI locus. In addition, the average F-ST value over nine polymorphic loci was a very low 0.0002. The evidence is consistent with current interpretations that P. cygnus is a single, panmictic population. In contrast with this spatial genetic homogeneity, however, there were significant changes in allelic frequencies at the GPI locus between 1980 and 1994, indicating genetic differences among cohorts.