Desenvolvimento e validação de microssatélites para estudos genéticos do piau-verdadeiro, Leporinus elongatus (Valenciennes, 1850), na bacia do São Francisco

Abstract

The piau-verdadeiro (Leporinus elongatus) is a freshwater fish that inhabits rivers of Paraná-Paraguai and São Francisco basins. Along these regions were built huge dams for power generation, which is hindering the reproductive migration of many species. Populations of L. elongatus have decreased, with greater decline in the region of sub-middlle São Francisco. Many electric companies and government are restocking perform without worrying about ecological principles, so little genetic. These management actions, in the long run, may lead to a decrease in the genetic diversity of these stocks, which can aggravate the adaptation of these populations. In this study, microsatellite markers of L. elongatus were constructed through a genomic library enriched for tetranucleotide motifs (GACA)4 and (GATA)7. Of a total of 14 markers that consistently amplified, seven were monomorphic and seven polymorphic. All markers successfully amplified for L. elongatus, however, for species of the same genus, L. reinhardt and L. taeniatus, only the marker Lelo 12 amplified to L. reinhardt. The seven polymorphic markers were assessed in a wild population of 44 individuals caught in the Upper São Francisco (MG). The number of alleles varied between five (Lelo 20) to 29 (Lelo 13), the observed and expected heterozygoties ranged from 0.568 to 0.977 and from 0.533 to 0.964, respectively. All the markers studied are in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and null alleles were not detected, however, two markers, Lelo 4 and Lelo 14 are connected on the same chromosome. These are the first microsatellite markers developed for this species and its characteristics allow it to be used in studies of population genetics, conservation and monitoring of restocking programs of the São Francisco River.