Genomics As a Powerful Tool for Lobster Fishery

One big interest of fishery management is to determine demographically independent populations and assessing their connectivity in order to then delineate adequate management units. However, most marine populations have complex demographic and reproductive patterns, difficult to reveal by using few genetic markers. To remedy to that challenge, we performed the most extensive genomic study ever done on a lobster species. We genotyped 5859 single nucleotide polymorphism markers (SNPs) on 651 individuals originated from 19 sampling locations distributed along the North Atlantic coast. First, we found a regional scale structure, signs of an historical separation among northern and southern populations. Then, we discovered a significant genetic differentiation between each sampling locations (P-value<0.0001) and a high assignment test success (about 77%). Both results provided strong evidence for a genetic imprint unique to each site, which was unthinkable on a species previously considered as being one homogenous population. This fine scale structure is in accordance with the ‘homing’ behavior and the restricted movement of American lobsters (<70km) observed by several tagging studies. Overall, the remarkable success of the assignment test approach points out a new facet of genomics as a promising tool for fisheries management.