Paraschistur anielseni is one of the main species of Paraschistura genus that is distributed in freshwater rivers which drain into the Persian Gulf. There has not been any study on genetic diversity of this species yet. In this investigation, 90 samples were collected from the rivers Shapour, Dalaki (Fars province) and Mand (Bushehr province) (30 samples per river) to investigate their population structure. A total of five microsatellite loci and three populations were used. Of the five loci, a total of 124 allels were obtained for all three rivers. The lowest and highest allele number were observed in the loci Bbar4 (5alleles) in Mand river and the lociIC654 (12 alleles) in Shapour river. Average observed allele (Na) in the rivers Shapour, Dalaki and Mand were 8.4, 8.4 and 8, respectively. Average genetic diversity was determined 0.462 Ho, which was separately 0.461, 0.452 and 0.365 for Shapour, Dalaki and Mand rivers, respectively. The highest Ho (0.739) and the lowest Ho (0.174) were observed in the locus IC654 (Dalaki) and the locus IC228 (Mand).The expected and observed mean heterozygosity were 0.426 and 0.817. The analysis of molecular variance revealed a high genetic diversity (98%) within investigated populations and a low distinction between populations (2%). Approximately, all loci showed deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). According to UPGMA cluster analysis, based on genetic distance, populations of Shapour and Mond rivers were not separate, but possibly the population of Dalaki River is separate from populations of the two other rivers.

Keywords: Paraschistur anielseni, Genetic diversity, Microsatellite, polymorphism

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