Genetic Diversity in Common Carp Stocks from a Natural Reservoir Assayed by Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Markers

Abstract

BackgroundThe common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a freshwater fish that is cultured throughout the world. C. carpio belongs to the family Cyprinidae, the largest family among freshwater teleosts, accounting for 10 % of total fish production. Specifically, the common carp is cultured in more than 100 countries in worldwide and accounts for over 3 million metric tons of total annual freshwater fish production. The population of common carp (C. carpio) is declining in freshwater reservoirs because of various human activities, such as overfishing, pollution, hybridization with domestic carp, and loss of breeding grounds because of habitat degradation.\n\nResultsIn total, 30 specimens were collected from each of four different locations (WH1, WH2, WH3 and WH4) in the reservoir. Five random decamer primers were used to assay polymorphisms within and between the population of C. carpio. A total of 60 bands were produced by these primers, out of which 50 bands were polymorphic and 10 bands were monomorphic. The mean highest polymorphism (100 %) was observed in the specimen collected from WHS4 stock, followed by 89.05, 87.62 and 76.66 % of the fish collection from WH3, WH2, and WH4, respectively. Neis genetic distance values ranged from 0.0006 to 0.1005. Highest and lowest genetic distance were 0.1005 and 0.006 in fish collected from WH1 and WH2, respectively. Average value of heterozygosity ranged from 0.3008 to 0.3748. A C. carpio UPGMA dendrogram was constructed to observe fish phylogeny. Phylogenetic clusters by RAPD indicated that fish stock of WH2, WH3, and WH4 were closely related to each other.\n\nConclusionIt was concluded that RAPD analysis can be successfully used as a marker to generate information regarding the percent homology within stock of common carp, which may be used to trace the progeny to the parents and is helpful for the improvement of breeding programs.