Inheritance of Microsatellite Loci and Their Application for Pedigree Analysis of the Polyploid Persian Sturgeon Acipenser Persicus (Acipenseridae)

Identification of suitable molecular markers for correctly assigning progenies to their parents particularly during the early stages of development is vital for aquaculture breeding programs. Developing such markers in sturgeons, that have a polyploid ancestry, is particularly challenging because many markers exhibit polysomic inheritance. In the present study, 2 F1 families of 23 and 28 larvae were produced in 1 × 1 crosses of Persian sturgeon. Eleven microsatellite loci were used to genotype the parents and their offspring. An analysis of inheritance patterns demonstrated classical mendelian disomic inheritance in all but 2 of the markers tested in the offspring. Two loci exhibited inheritance patterns consistent with a parental null allele that was consistently inherited by approximately 1/2 of the offspring screened. Thus, the markers tested here can be used for parental assignment testing and for population genetic studies. They can also be used as reliable molecular markers for constructing a genetic linkage map for the target species that will be essential for future quantitative trait locus mapping purposes. This is the 1st report of mendelian segregation testing in Persian sturgeon for cross-species amplification of single-locus DNA microsatellite markers.