Biochemical systematics of four sea-urchin species of the family diadematidae from Japanese waters

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Abstract

The poisonous sea-urchins of the family Diadematidae commonly found in the seas around southern Japan comprise four species belonging to two different genera. They are Diadema setosum (Leske), Diadema savignyi (Audouin), Echinothrix calamaris (Pallas) and Echinothrix diaderna (Linnaeus). The genetic relationships and genetic variation within their populations were investigated by electrophoretic analyses of 15 different enzymes. The amount of genetic variation within populations was considerably lower (the mean H is 3.7%) than that of echinoderms from the deep-sea, but compareble to that of other echinoderms living in shallow water as well as the diadematids. The biochemical dendrogram for these four species constructed from the Nei's genetic distances by using the UPGMA clustering method showed that the four species of the family Diadematidae are divided into two groups: one consists of two Diadema species and the other of the two Echinothrix species. The biochemical result is therefore consistent with the generally accepted taxonomic system established by morphological studies. The present electrophoretic results also strongly suggested that the four species of the Diadematidae are closely related to one another and their evolutionary divergences occurred in the relatively recent geological age of the Pleistocene (1.2–2.0 million years ago).

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