Genetic differentiation among three color variants of Japanese sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus

In order to evaluate genetic differentiation among three color variants (red, green and black) of Japanese sea cucumber, Stichopus japonicus, 11 isozyme loci were used as genetic markers for 448 individuals collected from four localities around Japan. Significant differences of allele frequencies were observed between all pairs of color types sympatrically Average genetic distances at seven loci between the three sympatric color types were 0.0173 between the red and the other color types, and 0.0015 between the green and the black types. A dendrogram drawn from genetic distances among the three color types across all four localities showed two distinct clusters comprising all the red types and all the green and the black types, respectively These results indicated that the red type showed definite genetic differentiation from the other color types.