Genetic variability of populations Perca fluviatilis from Lithuanian reservoirs revealed by IRAP

Abstract

Studies of molecular markers provide an opportunity to explore some genetic characteristics of particular populations, such as the number of polymorphic loci, frequencies of alleles, set of unique alleles, and, on this base, similarity and distances between populations. The aim of this study was to describe genetic variation in Lithuanian perch populations using one of the most popular molecular marker system – IRAP (Inter-Retrotransposon Amplified Polymorphism). The specimens were collected from four Lithuanian water reservoirs: three lakes (Drūkšiai, Plateliai, Metelys) and river Nemuna. DNA was extracted from muscle tissues of 20 individuals from the each population by innuPREP DNA Mini Kit (Analytik Jena). DNA samples were amplified by PCR with three previously selected specific retrotransposon-based primers and electrophoresed on agarose gel. In total, 128 loci were found, 80 (62%) of them were polymorphic. The numbers of polymorphic loci within each population varied between 22.7 % (lake Metelys) and 53.1% (lake Drūkšiai), the numbers of polymorphic loci of lake Plateliai and river Nemuna were 35.9% and 39.1%, respectively. According genetic distances four Lithuanian populations were divided on two different clusters, according localization on Lithuanian territory: western cluster – Nemunas and Plateliai, and eastern cluster – Drūkšiai and Metelys.