Molecular investigation of banana shrimp (P. merguiensis) populations from Persian Gulf and Oman sea using microsatellite markers

Molecular investigation of important commercial shrimp species is one of the main goals to find out the pure populations and brood stocking of marine resources.

The purpose of the present study was to study the population of P. merguiensis and determining the extent of genetic diversity of this species.

Samples were collected from three major distribution areas in the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Molecular investigation was carried out using microsatellite markers.

Only five out of the eight primers of P. merguiensis produced good amplified PCR products with fixed annealing temperature. The rest of the primers were either not easily amplified or produced nonspecific bands. Seven alleles were found to be unique to each of the three populations of P.merguiensis. Occurrences of heterozygosity deficiency were found at most loci. These heterozygosity deficiencies in observed heterozygosity in comparison to expected heterozygosity may be due to inbreeding, genetic drift and consequences of illegal overharvesting of P. merguiensis in the studied areas as well. Deviation from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium in both studied species was significant in most microsatellite loci (p<0.001). We observed deviation from HWE in most loci with hetrozygosity deficits. The genetic variation results showed that the pairwise Fst values were significant between studied populations. The assignment test revealed high gene flow between Hormoz and Jask and restricted genetic flow between Guatr and Hormoz populations.

It seems that the changes in immigration patterns of populations between Hormoz, Jask and Guatr areas depend on the influence of Persian Gulf currents or the life cycle of P. merguiensis in studied areas. Alternatively, the presence of ecological barriers such as mangrove forests may result in restricted genetic flow between Guatr and both Hormoz and Jask populations.