Simple sequence repeats analysis of two Paraschistura sp. populations from Kheirabad and Brim Rivers, Persian Gulf Basin, Iran

The aim of this study was to access the genetic differentiation of Paraschistura sp. in Kheirabad and Brim Rivers (Zohreh River System, Persian Gulf Basin), Iran. For this purpose, 60 samples including 30 male and 30 female samples from each river were collected. A total of six microsatellite loci (Bbar4, Bbar7, IC228, IC230, IC434 and IC720) were used and all of them showed high polymorphism (PIC= 0.87). The average numbers of observed alleles per loci in Kheirabad and Brim rivers were 13.5 and 12.5, respectively. The mean of observed heterozygosity values were 0.53 and 0.59 in Kheirabad and Brim rivers, respectively. The bottleneck analysis did not show any evidence of genetic bottleneck in these two rivers. Approximately all of loci showed deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). The genetic distance between the two populations was 0.629, indicating high genetic diversity of these two populations. The results of Molecular Variance Analysis revealed that genetic diversity within populations was 97 percent while between them was 3 percent. The FST value was 0.02 that indicates the low genetic differentiation between the two populations that could be explained by historical migrations in the past times. Also, the number of migrants (Nm) between the two populations was obtained 9.142. Finally, it seems that Paraschistura sp. has an adequate level of genetic diversity in the studied habitats, but the conservation programs are needed to ensure survival of this species in all of its geographical distributions.