Genetic Analysis of Asian Chum Salmon Populations Based on Microsatellite DNA Variation

摘要

We examined the genetic variability of Asian chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) populations using nuclear microsatellite (ms) DNA analysis with four polymorphic loci (OKM4, OKM5, OKM7, and OKM8) in 397 individuals from nine populations, including one inKorea, seven in Japan, and one in Russia. The msDNA gene diversity was highest in the Japanese populations, suggesting greater genetic variation in the populations in Japan than in populations in Korea and Russia. The pairwise F_(ST) estimates based on our msDNA data showed that the Korean population was genetically different from the Japanese and Russian populations, and there were higher F_(ST) estimates between Hokkaido and Honshu populations than between other population pairs. A neighbor-joining tree showed that the Korean population was distinct from two other clusters, representing the populations in Honshu and the populations in Hokkaido and Russia. These results suggest that the observed population genetic patterns of Asian chum salmon might be influenced by low or restricted gene flow.