Genetic Diversity of Kattan Luciobarbus xanthopterus Heckel, 1843 (Pisces: Cyprinidae) in Four Mesopotamean

Genetic diversity of fish species in Iraqi waters studies are rare, the study design to invistigate the genetic diversity of Kattan Luciobarbus xanthopterus Heckel, 1843 among four ecosystems; Shatt Al-Arab River southern Iraq, Dokan reserviour in Sulaimanya province, Tigris near Kut city and Euphrates near Kerbala’a city. Couple RAPD decamere primers have been selected. The profiles of RAPD-PCR products on agarose gel revealed 22 and 19 bands respectively. The C15 primer amplified seven, seven, one and four bandsand C16 primer created four, eight, two and eight bands respectively. The study concludedthat the L. xanthopterus genetically differentiated while adapting to various environments.whereas population in Tigris near Kut city was the most divers from the others. In thesame time populations from Shatt Al-Arab river and Dokan reserviour were the mostsimilar, while the Euphrates population near Kerbala a varied from the two later mostsimilar populations. The result of RAPD test revealed that this species acclimated with the ecological variation. The study recommoneds not to use each of the four stocks in artificial crossbreeding in order to conserve the L. xanthopterus genetic diversity.