Application of nine species-specific microsatellite loci to characterize three pike-perch ( Sander lucioperca ) populations from the Aral Sea basin in Uzbekistan

Abstract

The pike-perch is one of the main commercial fish species in Uzbekistan. Historically, it inhabited the Aral Sea and deltas of inflowing rivers (Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya). At the beginning of the 1960s it was introduced into water bodies of the middle Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya from the Ural River. The present study was aimed to evaluate the current genetic status of wild pike-perch populations from different water bodies using nine recently isolated species-specific microsatellite markers. The three examined Uzbek pike-perch populations expressed significantly higher average numbers of alleles per locus (5.56 to 14.22) than three year-classes of a German wild population (3.11 to 3.78) included for comparison. On the other hand, average observed and expected heterozygosities were not Application of nine species-specific microsatellite loci to characterize three pike-perch (Sander lucioperca) populations from the Aral Sea basin in Uzbekistan Ernest Khurshut1, Klaus Kohlmann2 1 Institute of Zoology, Niyazov St. 1, 100095 Tashkent, Uzbekistan. E‐mail: [e-mail] 2 Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Muggelseedamm 310, 12587 Berlin, Germany. Corresponding author: E-mail: [e-mail]; Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone]