Genetic analysis of spring and autumn races of Caspian Sea kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum) using microsatellite markers

The kutum (rutilus frisii kutum) is one of the economically valuable species of caspian sea. two different races of this fish exist in the caspian sea, the spring race and the autumn race. the aims of this study were to analysis the population genetic structure and genetic diversity among and between populations of these races based on microsatellite markers. for this purpose, 100 samples of adult kutum from two regions of caspian sea (anzali wetland and shiroud river) were collected. dna was extracted and 31 pair microsatellite primers were used for pcr and 10 made polymorphic patterns. in this study 191 alleles were observed totally. the maximum numbers of alleles (18) were foundin two loci (ca1 and ca3) and the minimum number of alleles (2) was found in mfw1 locus. the differences between both races were not statistically significant (p>0.05), neither for average number of alleles per locus nor for observed heterozygosities. the calculated fst and rst between two races was 0.056 and 0.15 which shows that the genetic difference was significant (p< 0.01). spring race in mfw1 locus and autumn race in lid1 locus were at hardy-weinberg equation but not in other loci in both races. the genetic distance was 0.407 which indicating the greatest genetic distance between the two studied races. the data generated in this study showed that the spring and autumn racesof kutum in two region of southern part of caspian sea are two independent populations.