The redivision of geographic population and genetic structure of Eriocheir in the West-Pacific Ocean.

Mitten crabs (Eriocheir) were widely distributed in the West-Pacific Ocean. In response to change of temperature during the Pleistocene, they were forced into repeated cycle of glacial retreat and interglacial expansion. In the study, genetic diversity and phylogeographic structure of Eriocheir were analysed by mtDNA markers. All results supported the redivision of four geographic populations of mitten crabs corresponding to geographic distribution. And introgression of the sympatric populations might have happened for some shared haplotypes. Results of "star-like" network, unimodal curve of mismatch distributions and significantly negative values of neutral test suggested a recent population expansion.