Aquaculture Reports (Apr 2022)
Novel microsatellites reveal wild populations genetic variance in pike-perch (Sander lucioperca) in China
Abstract
The pike-perch (Sander lucioperca) is a native fish species in European and Asian river basins. Owing to its fast growth rate, strong adaptability, and high nutritional value, it has become a promising candidate species for aquaculture. However, information on the genetic background of these wild populations is still limited, hindering the protection and sustainable utilisation of genetic resources in China. The aim of this study was to screen a set of microsatellite markers and assess the genetic variation of six pike-perch populations in China. A total of 92,162 pairs of microsatellite primers were designed. Among them, dinucleotide repeats were the most abundant microsatellites (81.47%), followed by trinucleotides (8.21%), tetranucleotides (7.59%), and pentanucleotide repeat microsatellites (2.73%). Of the 200 pairs of synthesised primers, 122 exhibited obvious repeat-length polymorphisms. Thirty polymorphic markers were selected to analyse six populations of pike-perch collected from China. The average number of alleles (Na) and effective alleles (Ne) per population varied from 2.333(WR) to 7.800(UL) and from 1.787(KL) to 4.435(UL), respectively. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) and polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.377(KL) to 0.796(TL) and from 0.304(KL) to 0.715(UL), respectively. The results showed that four populations were highly polymorphic (PIC≥0.5), two populations were moderately polymorphic (0.25≤PIC<0.5). The FST estimated using the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was 0.2090, indicating moderate levels of genetic differentiation among the populations. Results from the UPGMA dendrogram, structure analysis, and PCA analysis showed that the six populations of pike-perch were largely divided into two genetically distinct groups. The four populations, UL, TL, HR, and YR, were highly significantly different from KL and WR in northeast China. These populations can be utilised for breeding programmes to achieve substantial genetic variations in their descendants. Genetic diversity and structure analysis of populations will provide useful information for conservation management and effective utilisation of pike-perch.
