Molecular characterization of two populations of catfish Clarias batrachus L. using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers

Abstract

Studies were undertaken to identify genetic relationship and diversity of Clarias batrachus L. populations collected from hatchery and wild stocks through random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). 16 decamer primers were used for screening, out of which five produced amplicons. A total of 1376 RAPD bands ranging from 0.2 to 1.36 kb were amplified using five selected primers. The number of amplification products produced by a primer ranged from as low as three to a maximum of 18, with an average of 16 bands per primer. 8.1 to 13.71 polymorphic bands per primer were amplified. The polymorphic bands in these populations ranged from 56.4 to 59.6%. Polymorphic bands per lane within populations ranged from 4.88 to 5.3%. The similarity within the population from wild varied from 0.40 to 0.83 with a mean ± SE of 0.57 ± 0.08. The Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranged from 0 to 0.27. At 0.06 similarity coefficient, two major clusters were formed, which indicates that the genotypes belonging to same clusters were genetically similar and those belonging to different clusters were dissimilar. Significant (P < 0.05) population differentiation indicated some degree of intra-and inters-population genetic variations in two populations of catfish. This might be due to difference in habitat and breeding strategies between the two populations.

Unveiling the Genetic Diversity in Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) Fingerprinting Technique

“…Ours is a continent, where refugee camps are on the increase with no hope of providing them with basic needs of life, including balanced diet. Danish et al (2012) stated that while, the farming/cultivation of C. gariepinus has the potential towards livelihood development, employment generation; most importantly nutritional enrichment (protein) in the regular diet among populace, there is a remarkable reduction in the size of fish population due to environmental events-earthquakes, flood, drought or human activities (pollution). Additionally, inbreeding is a common problem in fish hatcheries.…”

“…It does suggest that populations showing higher intra-population similarity are likely to have less genetic diversity. For instance, a domestic population may suffer from a bottleneck, when only a few mating pairs reproduce hundreds of offspring that constitute the entire subsequent generation (Danish et al, 2012). This is very peculiar to hatchery owners that sometimes maintain a polygamous mating system in which a few males monopolize breeding and mate with many females.…”

“…Sci., 9 (5): 187-197, 2015 in Africa is not well established due to several limiting factors, which could include, development of catfish production in relation to environmental protection, genetic diversity and the future sustainability of the industry. Despite these surmountable problems facing fish industry, Danish et al (2012) observed that C. gariepinus cultivation has the potential towards livelihood development, employment generation as well as ensuring nutritional enrichment in the regular diet among the populace.…”

“…Undoubtedly, genetic variability in fishes has been reported to be very valuable for aquaculture and fisheries management, identification of stocks, selection for breeding programmes, ecology restoration and estimation of genetic contributions in stocks (Danish et al, 2012). In the word of Giri et al (2012), germplasm characterization is a critical link between the conservation and efficient utilization of genetic resources.…”

“…This decreased in genetic variation could be blamed on genetic drift and inbreeding constraint. This informed (Danish et al, 2012) probably to report that genetic monitoring is very imperative for an effective management strategy as fish population can suffer severe genetic erosion such as genetic drift, bottleneck, inbreeding, founder effect, etc., without being detected by the traditional demographic monitoring approach.…”