Genetic analysis on Microsatellites for Stock Conservation of Persian Sturgeon (Acipenser Persicus)of the Caspian Sea

Persian sturgeon a commercially importantspecies,inhabits mostly the southern basin of the CaspianSea. Currently the efficiency of natural reproductionof this fish has gradually declined due to over fishing,spawning habitat loss, and water pollution. Informationon the genetic diversity of Persian sturgeon populationsis vital for their breeding management. In the long term,the most important goal of stock management is tocontrol inbreeding and decreasing of growth traits. Theobjective on this study was to evaluate the genetic diversityof sturgeons using 11 single locus DNA microsatellitemarkers. The 167 Persian sturgeons were randomlycollected from four locations in coastal waters of theCaspian Sea namely, Russia (43), Turkmenistan (13), Iran(81) and Safidrod River. Parameters estimated includenumber of alleles, allelic frequencies, percentage ofpolymorphic loci, observed and expected heterozygosity,linkage disequilibrium, conformity of allele frequenciesto that expected under Hardy–Weinberg Equilibriumand estimates of population differentiation includingF-statistics and gene flow, genetic similarity and distance.The mean number of alleles yielded by all microsatellitesranged in populations Turkmenistan, Russia, Safidroodand Iran was 7.22±2.90, 10.1±5.14 ,8.2±3.54 and9.90±4.72 respectively. The mean Shanon index was1.64±0.48, 1.82±0.57, 1.69± 0.53 and 1.82±0.5respectively. Average observed heterozygosity at sampledloci was high, ranging from 0.56±0.20 (TurkmenistanCoast) to 0.67±0.16 (Safidrod River).The most frequent allele (MFA) for locus AfuG68B,AfuG63, AfuG56, AfuG112, AfuG19-1, AfuG19-2,AfuG195, AfuG229, AfuG160, AfuG241 and Aox27were frequent 259, 165, 181, 242, 206 and 218bprespectively Generally, the results of this study showed that thesepopulations belong to same species, however based onof these 11 investigated loci the highest similarity wasbetween populations Russian – Iran (0.90) and the lowestsimilarity was Turkmenistan- Safiedrod River (0.79).These polymorphic markers could be further evaluatedfor their usefulness in marker-assisted selection asthe PCR methodology we developed would expeditescreening of the large numbers of animals required forsuch studies.

Keywords:

Persian sturgeon , microsatellite , Caspian Sea , conservation , Inbreeding , stock management