Genetic diversity evaluation of Paraschistura bampurensis (Nikolskii, 1900) in Shapour and Berim Rivers (Iran) using microsatellite markers

Abstract

Paraschistura bampurensis is one of the species of genus Paraschistura. It is distributed in Iran and 
Pakistan freshwater. This paper reports a study carried out on genetic diversity and population 
structure of P. bampurensis in Shapour and Berim river basins, Iran. 100 samples of 50 fish each were 
collected from each river and were used. Microsatellite markers have been increasingly used in 
population genetics studies. In this study, a total of six microsatellite loci and two sampling populations 
were used. The average number of observed alleles in Shapour and Berim population accounted for 
13.5 and 12.5, respectively. The average number of allele’s level in the population accounted for 13, well 
above the reported values for freshwater fishes. The mean expected and observed heterozygosity mean 
were 0.562 and 0.861, respectively. Approximately all loci showed a deviation from Hardy-Weinberg 
equilibrium. The genetic similarity and distance between the two populations were 0.402 and 0.669, 
respectively. According to the analysis, it seems that P. bampurensis has a desirable genetic diversity 
in the investigated regions.