Diferenças morfológias e moleculares de Macrobrachium amazonicum (Heller, 1862) distribuídos ao longo da Bacia do Rio Amazonas, Brasil

Abstract

The prawns are arthropods belonging to the subphylum Crustacea, Decapoda order. The genus Macrobrachium, has approximately 243 described species, 18 occurring in Brazil. Macrobrachium amazonicum is a natural prawn from South America that has a wide geographic distribution. It presents great morphological variability, mainly among geographically distant populations. This work aimed to characterize morphologically and genetically M. amazonicum populations distributed along the Amazon River basin, state of Pará, Brazil, by weight, carapace length (CC) and total length. In addition, two continental and coastal pollutions were tested for the use of the molecular marker of intron 2 of the hyperglycemic hormone (CHH), the variability of this marker may be associated with the morphometric characteristics analyzed. The analyzed sample had a maximum length of 126.07 mm for specimens from the municipality of Almeirim, state of Pará, Brazil (400 km from the coast). Although there were statistically significant differences between the populations analyzed for TC, CC and weight, it was not possible to separate them clearly between continental and coastal. This work is a contribution to the biology of M. amazonicum in a natural environment, being necessary the continuation of molecular and morphological analyzes for a better understanding of the biology of the species.