Abstract
Lepomis macrochirus from the family Centrarchidae, commonly known as Bluegill sunfish, is an introduced freshwater fish in Korea that thrives in lakes, ponds, reservoirs and rivers. Since its introduction into Korea in 1969, Lepomis macrochirus has rapidly dispersed out and increased in number almost all over the freshwater ecosystems in Korea. Consequently this species causes a severe ecological problem, threatening native fishes due to its omnivorous foraging behaviors upon fish juveniles and many freshwater invertebrates. To address population genetic structure of L. macrochirus, 74 fish samples from 10 populations were collected and compared for their mitochondrial D-loop control region. As the result we found that the genetic diversity of L. macrochirus is extremely low such as resulting only four haplotypes with a few nucleotide differences among them. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that the source of population genetic variation is largely retained in the comparisons among individuals within populations, while it is relatively low with slight significance at the highest hierarchical group. This distribution pattern differs from what is expected when biogeography is under the influence of natural geographic barriers such as mountain ranges in Korea. Instead the result is accord with the influential role of random spreading events facilitated by local people for aquaculture and fishing, and subsequent dispersals since its single point of introduction into Korea.
