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Bahaba taipingensis (Chinese bahaba) is a critically endangered fish endemic to China’s coastal waters, valued for both ecological and economic reasons and known as the “panda of the sea”. Captive breeding and stock enhancement are key conservation strategies, yet the genetic composition of released individuals directly affects program outcomes. This study combined mitochondrial and whole-genome resequencing to compare F1-generation fish with wild populations. At the mitochondrial level, 60 SNPs were detected in F1 individuals and 72 in wild populations, with haplotype analyses revealing retention of most common maternal lineages but reduced diversity. Nuclear genome analysis showed comparable genetic diversity between groups. Nucleotide diversity (π) was 0.000423 in F1 fish and 0.000401 in the wild population. However, the F1 cohort exhibited a higher inbreeding coefficient (FIS = −0.030) than the wild group (FIS = −0.118), suggesting early allele frequency shifts, thereby suggesting early genotype frequency shifts. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) analysis showed that the total number and length of ROH regions in the F1 cohort (686, 283,089.25 kb) were significantly greater than those in the wild population (171, 52,607.30 kb). Genome-wide FST between groups was 0.035, and PCA indicated genetic homogenization in F1 fish. Ne analysis showed that the wild population declined rapidly over generations and stabilized at a low level, indicating genetic diversity loss under environmental stress and highlighting the role of artificial breeding. These findings highlight the need for improved broodstock management and long-term genetic monitoring.

The large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea , was once the most abundant and economically important marine fish in China. Thus far, it has also been the most successful mariculture fish species in China. However, its wild stock severely declined in the 1970s because of overexploitation, and therefore hatchery release has been carried out for stock enhancement since 2000. As a migratory fish, large yellow croaker was divided into three geographical stocks according to ambiguous morphological and biological characteristics in early documents. To investigate the identity of wild large yellow croaker populations and assess the influence of hatchery supplementation on wild populations, a total of 2,785 cultured individuals and 591 wild individuals were collected from 91 hatcheries and six wild populations along the coast of mainland China and analyzed using two mitochondrial genes [cytochrome oxidase I ( COI ) and cytochrome b ( Cyt b )] and one nuclear gene ( RyR3 ). The higher haplotype diversity and moderate nucleotide diversity of wild large yellow croaker indicated that overexploitation, which caused a sharp decrease in biomass, did not lead to a loss of genetic diversity. According to phylogenetic construction and network analysis, the absence of a significant population structure pattern revealed a single panmictic population of wild large yellow croaker with exception of a population collected from the Sansha Bay, which showed high genetic relatedness to the cultured population, suggesting significant genetic effects resulting from stock enhancement. Overall, our study suggests no genetic differentiation in the entire wild population of large yellow croaker, which means that we have great flexibility in mixing and matching farmed and wild populations. However, since the result showed that domestication, the relaxation of purifying selection, increased genetic loads, and maladapted farmed fish will be at a selective disadvantage when cultured juveniles are released in the wild, the effectiveness of stock enhancement and the negative impact of hatchery-wild fish hybridization on the wild population must be carefully evaluated in future.

The yellow grouper (Epinephelus awoara) is distributed in the West Pacific Ocean. Its genetic structure and demography were investigated using mitochondrial COI, Cyt b, the ND2 gene, the nuclear RyR3 gene, and 10 microsatellite DNA markers. A total of 120 individuals were collected from four locations along the coast of southeastern mainland China. High levels of haplotype diversity (0.968) were observed in mitochondrial DNA, and the average number of alleles ranged from 13.4 to 20.3 in microsatellite DNA data, which showed that all populations exhibited a high level of genetic diversity. Deficiency of heterozygosity was observed in all populations with positive FIS, showing that the characteristics of hermaphroditism might also be an underlying cause. The results of PCA, UPGMA clustering analysis and the significant genetic differentiation found in the Beibu Gulf population revealed the prevention of gene flow caused by the Qiongzhou Strait. The population of E. awoara also presented two major lineages, resulting in the appearance of the land bridge of the Taiwan Strait as a possible factor during the Pleistocene glaciation. Analysis of demographic history revealed that E. awoara underwent a reduction in effective population size in the past, followed by a single instantaneous increase in population size.

Bahaba taipingensis (Chinese bahaba) is a critically endangered fish endemic to China’s coastal waters, valued for both ecological and economic reasons and known as the “panda of the sea”. Captive breeding and stock enhancement are key conservation strategies, yet the genetic composition of released individuals directly affects program outcomes. This study combined mitochondrial and whole-genome resequencing to compare F[sub.1]-generation fish with wild populations. At the mitochondrial level, 60 SNPs were detected in F[sub.1] individuals and 72 in wild populations, with haplotype analyses revealing retention of most common maternal lineages but reduced diversity. Nuclear genome analysis showed comparable genetic diversity between groups. Nucleotide diversity (π) was 0.000423 in F[sub.1] fish and 0.000401 in the wild population. However, the F[sub.1] cohort exhibited a higher inbreeding coefficient (F[sub.IS] = −0.030) than the wild group (F[sub.IS] = −0.118), suggesting early allele frequency shifts, thereby suggesting early genotype frequency shifts. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) analysis showed that the total number and length of ROH regions in the F[sub.1] cohort (686, 283,089.25 kb) were significantly greater than those in the wild population (171, 52,607.30 kb). Genome-wide F[sub.ST] between groups was 0.035, and PCA indicated genetic homogenization in F[sub.1] fish. N[sub.e] analysis showed that the wild population declined rapidly over generations and stabilized at a low level, indicating genetic diversity loss under environmental stress and highlighting the role of artificial breeding. These findings highlight the need for improved broodstock management and long-term genetic monitoring.

The Chinese beard eel (Cirrhimuraena chinensis Kaup) is an intertidal fish and a model organism for the study of impacts caused by topological fluctuations during the Pleistocene and current intricate hydrological conditions on fauna living in the coastal areas of China. In this study, we examined the phylogeographical pattern, population genetic profile and demographical history of C. chinensis using mitochondrial DNA (cytochrome b (cyt b) and control region (CR)) from 266 individuals sampled in seven localities across the coastal area of southeastern China. The combined data indicated high levels of haplotype diversity and low levels of nucleotide diversity. Analyses of molecular variance (AMOVA) and FST statistics suggested the absence of a significant population structure across the Chinese coast. Neutrality tests, mismatch distributions and Bayesian skyline plots uniformly indicated a recent population expansion. The phylogeographic structure of C. chinensis may be attributed to past population expansion and long-distance pelagic larval dispersal facilitated by present-day ocean currents.

Aim Rare species make substantial contributions to coastal ecosystem functions. Functional rarity (FR) and phylogenetic rarity (PR) are important features for biodiversity conservation. This work aimed to discuss the necessity and reasonableness of conserving fish FR and PR in coastal seas. Location China. Methods By compiling historical fish investigation data, joint species distribution modelling (JSDM) was applied to model fish communities in coastal China Seas. Biogeographic patterns of FR and PR were explored, and the effectiveness of current MPA networks in terms of match/mismatch with the hotspots of rarity was assessed. Results A total of 44 functionally rare species and 22 phylogenetically rare species were identified. Six of these species were both functionally and phylogenetically rare, and only one was listed as endangered on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Functional rarity hotspots covered 10.27% of the coastal areas, which geographically converged in the southern and eastern coast of Taiwan, the Yangtze River Estuary and the Yellow River Estuary. Phylogenetic rarity hotspots only covered 3.06% of the coastal areas, which were sporadically distributed in the coastal East China Sea, the Bohai Sea and the northern Yellow Sea. Current marine‐protected areas (MPAs) only represented 16.16% of the FR hotspots and 20.48% of the PR hotspots, indicating substantial mismatched areas between the MPAs and the hotspots of FR and PR. Main Conclusions Only considering threatened species in conservation practices will omit functionally and phylogenetically rare species because FR and PR are not necessarily correlated with species threat status on the IUCN Red List. Functional rarity hotspots do not necessarily overlap with PR hotspots, and current MPAs mismatch the majority of these areas. We therefore advocate that conservation prioritization and expansion of MPA networks should account for FR and PR both at the species and site levels.