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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1437097
Genetic differentiation between captive and wild populations induced by selective breeding in morphologically diverse Takifugu pufferfish
Provisionally accepted
Nobuhisa Kajino 1
Hyoun Joong Kim 2
Hyun-Ki Hong 3 Wan-Ok Lee 1 Hiroshi Takahashi 4
Kwang-Sik Choi 1*
Hyung-Bae Jeon 2*- 1 Jeju National University, Jeju City, Republic of Korea
- 2 Kunsan National University, Gunsan, North Jeolla, Republic of Korea
- 3 Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, South Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
- 4 National Fisheries University, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan
Pufferfish from the genus Takifugu are vital commercial resources in East Asia. Within the genus, the taxonomic status of two commercially important species, T. rubripes and T. chinensis, remains ambiguous, especially given their morphological variability. Recent observations of suspected hybrids between T. rubripes and T. chinensis on Jeju Island, South Korea, displaying intermediate phenotypes, have further confused their classification. In this study, we analyzed 73 pufferfish, including wild-caught T. rubripes, T. chinensis, suspected hybrids, and farm-bred T. rubripes, using 16 microsatellite loci to explore their population structure and evolutionary relationships. The Bayesian clustering and principal coordinate analysis showed minimal genetic differentiation among the wild populations, regardless of phenotype. This finding suggests that T. rubripes and T. chinensis might represent a single species with considerable morphological diversity. In contrast, farm-bred T. rubripes exhibited significant genetic differentiation from wild populations, likely due to domestication-induced genetic drift. These results challenge the existing taxonomic distinctions between T. rubripes and T. chinensis and highlight the profound impact of aquaculture on the genetics of captive populations. This study underscores the necessity for ongoing research into the taxonomy and population genetics of the T. rubripes-chinensis complex to guide conservation and management strategies and stresses the importance of genetic monitoring in pufferfish aquaculture to counteract inbreeding and genetic drift.
Keywords: Takifugu, microsatellites, population structure, Genetic Drift, Domestication
Received: 23 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kajino, Kim, Hong, Lee, Takahashi, Choi and Jeon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kwang-Sik Choi, Jeju National University, Jeju City, Republic of Korea
Hyung-Bae Jeon, Kunsan National University, Gunsan, 573-701, North Jeolla, Republic of Korea
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