Portunus trituberculatus

Portunus trituberculatus, the gazami crab, Japanese blue crab or horse crab, is the most widely fished species of crab in the world. It is found off the coasts of East Asia and is closely related to Portunus pelagicus.

Portunus trituberculatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Crustacea
Class:
Malacostraca
Order:
Decapoda
Infraorder:
Brachyura
Family:
Portunidae
Genus:
Portunus
Species:
P. trituberculatus
Binomial name
Portunus trituberculatus
(Miers, 1876)
Synonyms [1]

Neptunus trituberculatus Miers, 1876

Fishery

P. trituberculatus is the world's most heavily fished crab species, with over 300,000 tonnes being caught annually, 98% of it off the coast of China.[2] This is because it is considered highly nutritious, especially in regard to crab cream (roe).[3]

Distribution

P. trituberculatus is found off the coasts of Japan, Korea, China, Pakistan and Taiwan.[4]

Description

The carapace may reach 15 centimetres (5.9 in) wide, and 7 cm (2.8 in) from front to back. P. trituberculatus may be distinguished from the closely related (and also widely fished) P. pelagicus by the number of broad teeth on the front of the carapace (3 in P. trituberculatus, 4 in P. pelagicus) and on the inner margin of the merus (4 in P. trituberculatus, 3 in P. pelagicus).[2]

Taxonomy

P. trituberculatus was first described by Edward J. Miers in 1876, under the name Neptunus trituberculatus.[1] To better understand the species development, evolution and reproduction a reference genome has been sequenced, assembling to 1.0 Gb in size and anchoring to 50 chromosomes.[5] And demonstrating it diverged from the Chinese mitten crab around 183.5 million years ago.

References
  1. Peter Davie (2010). "Portunus (Portunus) trituberculatus (Miers, 1876)". World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  2. "FAO fisheries global information system". Retrieved August 2, 2006.
  3. Xiu-rong, Su; Tai-wu, Li; Ming-jin, Ding; Chien, Paul K. (1997-06-01). "Evalution on nutritive value ofPortunus trituberculatus". Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology. 15 (2): 168–172. doi:10.1007/BF02850688. ISSN 1993-5005.
  4. "Portunus trituberculatus". Crabs of Japan. Marine Species Identification Portal. Retrieved March 20, 2011.
  5. Tang, Boping; Zhang, Daizhen; Li, Haorong; Jiang, Senhao; Zhang, Huabin; Xuan, Fujun; Ge, Baoming; Wang, Zhengfei; Liu, Yu; Sha, Zhongli; Cheng, Yongxu (2020-01-01). "Chromosome-level genome assembly reveals the unique genome evolution of the swimming crab (Portunus trituberculatus)". GigaScience. 9 (1). doi:10.1093/gigascience/giz161. PMC 6944217. PMID 31904811.
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