Perna viridis also known as Asian Green Mussels are ecologically, commercially and aesthetically important. However, populations often experienced stress. They are edible species of saltwater clam and have been cultivated, and commercially harvested in the Philippines also worldwide. Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA) is apopular tool to estimate the stress, quality, health of individuals and populations and used to measure developmental stability or the organism"s ability to buffer environmental and

more »

... netic perturbations. This study demonstrated the use of FA for monitoring developmental stability of bivalve species P. viridis. It investigated the differences of FA of three different populations from Baliangao, Misamis Occidental; Mukas and Tubod, Lanao del Norte. Thirteen anatomical and mathematical landmarks were used and subjected to Procrustes superimposition and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using "Symmetry and Asymmetry in Geometric Data" (SAGE) program. Results yield significant evidence of FA for all the populations examined. High significant values for FA were observed in the three sampling sites which were environmentally disturbed due to anthropogenic activities such as residential pollutants or wastes from ship terminals. Mukas showed the highest value for FA as there are fluvial vehicles present in the site. The three sites also exhibited significant directional asymmetry (DS) which suggests that variation in size or left-right side of each individual could be a product of genotype-environment interaction. Thus, the study demonstrates the potential of FA as an indicator for environmental stress.