Genetic Diversity and Population Connectivity of the Greenblotch Parrotfish (Scarus quoyi Valenciennes, 1840) within Southern Mindanao Inferred from Mitochondrial 16S rRNA

A genetic assessment was done on the greenblotch parrotfish (Scarus quoyi Valenciennes, 1840) in three bays within southern Mindanao, Philippines. Mitochondrial 16S rRNA recovered 12 haplotypes, one of which dominant all sites. Despite reported phenotypic variation from previous assessments, there neither evidence structure (global Φst = 0.012, p 0.13) nor isolation by distance (r 0.05, 0.50). Genetic diversity also low (Hglobal 0.472; πglobal 0.13%), with ~ 77% haplotype accounted for just 69 samples. While connectivity suggests continuous larval exchange Mindanao owing to species’ high dispersal potential, implies reduced effective population size, probably due recent bottlenecks (e.g. overfishing, habitat destruction). Although this study provides baseline information local population, inferences are considerably limited marker used and spatial scale under investigation. thorough understanding will be possible if entire range species is assessed using markers resolving power, such as hypervariable mitochondrial control region, microsatellites, or genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).