THE PCR-RFLP INVESTIGATION OF CLUPEONELLA CULTRIVENTRIS FROM THE SOUTH CASPIAN SEA, IRAN

Fifty common kilka (Clupeonella cultriventris) specimens from Guilan Province and fifty others from MazandaranProvince, South Caspian Sea were collected to study genetic variation in the fish using Restricted Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) of the mtDNA. DNA was extracted from fin tissue by phenol-chloroform method. The PCR products were digested using 13 restriction endo-nuclease enzymes. Five out of thirteen restriction enzymes were polymorphic resulting in nine different haplotypes. The haplotype divergence ranged from 0.0073 to 0.0369. The mean value of haplotype and nucleotide diversity among populations was 0.7339±0.0006 and 0.0098±0.0, respectively. The nucleotide divergence among populations was 0.01%. Statistically significant differences in haplotype frequencies among all samples were observed (P<0.01). Therefore, we conclude the populations are different genetically.