Clonal structure through space and time: high stability in the holothurian Stichopus chloronotus (Echinodermata)

Sea cucumbers are increasingly exploited for human consumption and for their curative properties, and many wild populations are now depleted or in danger of extinction. While aquaculture is seen as an alternative to fisheries and as a mean to restore wild populations, more knowledge is needed on their reproductive strategies to render this practice efficient, notably for fissiparous holothurians, which are some of the mobile animals able of asexual reproduction by transverse fission. Little information is available on their population genetic diversity and structure. Here, the clonal structure of populations of the fissiparous sea cucumber Stichopus chloronotus has been investigated using nine microsatellite loci and a random sampling, at different spatial (intra-reef and inter-reef) and temporal (inter-season and inter-year) scales. Our findings highlight the importance of asexual reproduction in maintaining these populations, and the prevalence of the “initial seedling recruitment” st...

海参（Sea cucumber）正日益被开发用于人类食用及药用价值，当前许多野生种群已濒临枯竭或灭绝风险。尽管水产养殖被视为替代渔业捕捞、恢复野生种群的可行途径，但要让该养殖实践高效开展，仍需更多关于其繁殖策略的研究认知，这一点对于分裂繁殖型海参纲动物尤为关键——这类动物可通过横裂实现无性繁殖。目前关于这类动物的种群遗传多样性与遗传结构的相关信息仍较为匮乏。本研究针对分裂繁殖型海参绿刺参(Stichopus chloronotus)，利用9个微卫星位点(microsatellite loci)，在不同空间（礁内与礁间）及时间（季间与年间）尺度下开展随机采样，对其种群的克隆结构展开了探究。本研究结果凸显了无性繁殖在维持此类种群中的重要作用，以及“初始幼苗定植（initial seedling recruitment）”模式的普遍性……