Evaluation of Microsatellite Polymorphism in Asian Seabass (Lates calcarifer) Populations from India

The allelic variation at five microsateliite loci was characterised for five populations of Asian seabass, Lates calcarifer of east coast (Kolkata, Paradeep, Kakinada and Chennai) and west coast (Mumbai) of India by PCR using genomic DNA extracted from fin clips and separated in non-denaturing PAGE. The number of alleles in the five populations of Lates calcarifer ranged from 5.6 to 6.8. The average of the observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.729 to 0.798 and from 0.780 to 0.920, respectively. The number of alleles observed at a locus varied between 9 and 15. Each microsateliite locus was found highly polymorphic with 9 alleles at BMS-11, 13 alleles at BMS-21, 13 alleles at BMS-27, 11 alleles at BMS-32 and 15 alleles at BMS-36 in the allelic size range of 160–200, 160–240, 195–280, 140–300 and 160–540 bp, respectively. The average numbers of alleles were found higher in east coast population, i.e. Kolkata (5.8), Paradeep (6.2), kakinada (6.8) and Chennai (5.8) when compared with west coast population of Mumbai (5.6). The expected heterozygosity values were found maximum in Lates calcarifer of Mumbai (0.92) stock followed by Chennai (0.90), Kolkata (0.86), Kakinada (0.84) and Paradeep (0.78) stocks. Dendrogran based on genetic distance matrix values of the five stocks of Lates calcarifer using neighbour joining tree clustering method showed four distinct clusters i.e., Chennai and Kakinada in one cluster and Mumbai, Paradeep & Kolkata as three separate cluster. This study constitutes the first attempt based on microsateliite polymorphism to reveal the population structure and microsateliite markers of Lates calcarifer-a highly potential brackishwater fish from India.