POPULATION STRUCTURE OF ACIPENSER NUDIVENTRIS IN THE SOUTH COAST OF CASPIAN SEA AND URAL RIVER USING MICROSATELLITE METHOD

Population structure of Ship sturgeon, Acipenser nudiventris, from the south coast of Caspian Sea and Ural River was investigated using Microsatellite method. For this reason, 73 specimens of the sturgeon were collected from five locations in two sampling regions the first consisted of Bandar Anzali, SefidRud River, Babolsar, and Gorgan, and the second was Ural River. Four SSR markers were used in this investigation, of which 5 loci produced DNA band, with three of them being polymorph. One primer showed two loci with one of them being polymorph and another was monomorphic). Average expected and observed heterozygosity was 0.86 and 0.75 respectively. Genetic variation was assessed through analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) that indicated almost all of the variance in data namely %94 (p£0.03) was within locations. Genetic variance among locations was 3% (P<0.02) and among regions was %3 (p£0.08). According to the results, we suggest that the sturgeon population from Ural River is different from that of the south Caspian Sea samples. This information is of utmost importance in artificial reproduction and stock rebuilding of the fish.