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Fishery Bulletin 113(4) 
Table 1 
Total number of hogfish ( Lachnolaimus maximus) collected, time span of specimen collection, total number of alleles sam- 
pled, and standard genetic indices for each sampling area in the southeastern United States (from northwest Florida to 
North Carolina). Sampling areas 1-9 are geographically defined in Figure 1. Genetic measurements were calculated over a 
suite of 24 microsatellite loci, and mean values of genetic diversity, number of alleles per locus, allelic richness, and observed 
and unbiased observed heterozygosity are presented for each sampling area as well as for all specimens combined. Numbers 
in parentheses in the last column indicate overall mean values for all specimens combined. 
Sampling area 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
Total 
Number of 
119 
71 
88 
24 
22 
70 
191 
32 
102 
719 
specimens 
Time span of 
2007- 
2005- 
2005- 
2006- 
2006- 
2006- 
2009- 
2009- 
2010- 
2005- 
specimen collection 
2012 
2012 
2012 
2012 
2012 
2012 
2013 
2013 
2012 
2013 
(years) 
Total number 
of alleles 
246 
223 
237 
165 
161 
238 
296 
203 
174 
350 
(216) 
Genetic diversity 
0.63 
0.65 
0.65 
0.63 
0.64 
0.67 
0.67 
0.68 
0.61 
0.65 
(0.65) 
Number of alleles 
per locus 
10.3 
9.3 
9.9 
6.9 
6.7 
9.9 
12.3 
8.5 
7.3 
14.6 
(9.0) 
Allelic richness 
9.5 
9.0 
9.7 
9.6 
6.3 
9.7 
12.2 
8.2 
7.1 
14.4 
(9.0) 
Observed 
heterozygosity 
0.57 
0.59 
0.60 
0.61 
0.59 
0.63 
0.63 
0.63 
0.58 
0.60 
(0.60) 
Unbiased observed 
heterozygosity 
0.63 
0.65 
0.65 
0.63 
0.64 
0.66 
0.67 
0.68 
0.61 
0.66 
(0.65) 
Expected heterozygosity 
0.63 
0.64 
0.64 
0.62 
0.63 
0.66 
0.66 
0.67 
0.60 
0.66 
(0.64) 
ting sampling area 6, which was a mixture of cluster 
1 and cluster 2, to avoid interference with linkage 
disequilibrium. 
Results 
Standard genetic measures and distances 
Significant heterozygote deficiencies were sporadically 
detected at 3 loci (Lmax4, Lmax29, and Lmax 35) in up 
to 5 sampling areas. Presumptive frequencies of null 
alleles at those loci that exhibited heterozygote deficits 
ranged from 0.17 to 0.24. There were no significant dif- 
ferences among sampling areas in the mean values of 
standard genetic measures (Table 1). For all loci, 350 
alleles were identified (mean=216) over all 9 sampling 
areas. Over the 36 possible pairwise comparisons, 30 
sampling area pairs had Fgx values that were signifi- 
cantly greater than zero (10,000 permutations; P<0.05). 
Principal coordinate analysis 
The PCA defined 3 genetic clusters, with the primary 
axis (coordinate 1) explaining 58.9% and the second- 
ary axis (coordinate 2) explaining 38.9% of the genetic 
variability from the uncorrected Fgx values (Fig. 2A), 
compared with 68.0% and 32.0% on the basis of the cor- 
rected Fst values (Fig. 2B ). Cluster 1 included specimens 
collected in the eastern Gulf of Mexico from the Florida 
Panhandle to Naples (sampling areas 1-5). Cluster 2 
included specimens collected from the Florida Keys and 
along the southeastern coast of Florida (sampling areas 
7 and 8). Cluster 3 included specimens collected from 
the Carolinas (sampling area 9). The cluster identity 
of sampling area 6 (Everglades region) was unresolved, 
falling between cluster 1 and cluster 2 when analyzed 
on the basis of uncorrected /■’<.;•>- (Fig. 2A). 
Analysis of molecular variance 
The AMOVA revealed that 98.2% of the variation oc- 
curred within sampling areas and 1.8% occurred 
among sampling areas. The overall Fgx value of 0.018 
(P<0.001) indicated significant differentiation among 
sampling areas due to the presence of spatial struc- 
ture at both regional and local scales. The greatest 
among-cluster variance in the AMOVA (Table 2) was 
observed when sampling areas were grouped accord- 
ing to the PCA results that were based on corrected 
FgX (Fig. 2B) — an approach that placed sampling area 
6 into cluster 1. Translocation of sampling area 6 from 
cluster 1 to cluster 2 only slightly reduced the among- 
cluster variance (Table 2). 
