Allozymic Characterization of Scottish and Aegean Populations ofNephrops Norvegicus

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Abstract
One Scottish and two Aegean samples ofNephrops norvegicus(Crustacea: Decapoda) were allozymically tested using a total of 110 individuals and compared with two already characterized Adriatic populations. Three main characteristics of their genetic structure emerge: a highly homogeneous allele pattern, a strong heterozygote deficiency at some loci and a significant genotypic variance among populations, mainly caused by thePgmlocus. Population subdivision, intraunit inbreeding, bottlenecks and selective constraints are taken into account to allow for these genetic features, although none of them proved decisive. The search for straightforward characters differentiating Norway lobsters of geographically different areas proved unsuccessful, although a significant genotypic differentiation was noticed among our samples. Observed D values among the geographically distant samples indicate a very low genetic divergence, so that no clear phyletic conclusions can be traced on the sole allozyme-gene analysis.