Morphometric and Preliminary Genetic Characteristics of <i>Artemia</i> Populations from Iran

Abstract

Abstract Six Artemia populations, one bisexual and five parthenogenetic, from different parts of Iran were compared using morphometric and genetic characteristics. The discriminant analysis based on 19 morphometric variables showed that there are significant differences between the studied populations based on their morphological characteristics, where 85.9% of original grouped cases were correctly classified. The bisexual Artemia urmiana however exhibited a 100% separation from the parthenogenetic populations. However, a 1500 bp mitochondrial rDNA fragment showed similar RFLP patterns for all Iranian populations confirming earlier reports of a close genetic relationship between A. urmiana and parthenogenetic Artemia . (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim)