Aim: Genetic data were used to measure the phylogeographic distribution of the limpet, Cellana toreuma along the China coast in order to acsertain impacts of historic events, ocean currents and especially freshwater discharge from the Yangtze River on the connectivity of intertidal species with limited larval dispersal capability.
Methodology/principal findings: Genetic variation in 15 populations of C. toreuma (n = 418), ranging from the Yellow Sea (YS), East China Sea (ECS) and South China Sea (SCS), were determined from partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Genetic diversity and divergence based on haplotype frequencies were analyzed using CONTRIB, and AMOVA was used to examine genetic population structure. Historic demographic expansions were evaluated from both neutrality tests and mismatch distribution tests. Among the 30 haplotypes identified, a dominant haplotype No. 1 (H1) existed in all the populations, and a relatively abundant private haplotype (H2) in YS. Pairwise F(ST) values between YS and the other two groups were relatively high and the percentage of variation among groups was 10.9%.
Conclusions: The high nucleotide and gene diversity in the YS, with large pairwise genetic distances and relatively high percentages of variation among groups, suggests that this group was relatively isolated from ECS and SCS. This is likely driven by historic events, ocean currents, and demographic expansion. We propose that freshwater discharge from the Yangtze River, which may act as physical barrier limiting the southward dispersal of larvae from northern populations, is especially important in determining the separation of the YS group from the rest of the Chinese populations of C. toreuma.