Novel polymorphic microsatellites for studying genetic diversity of red Asian arowanas

Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) is a highly endangered fish species listed in Appendix I of CITES since 1980. Fourteen novel polymorphic microsatellites were isolated from a CA-enriched partial genomic DNA library, and were used for studying genetic diversity of 41 red arowanas from the wild population. Surprisingly the average allele number of the 14 polymorphic microsatellites was as high as 12.4/locus. The average observed heterozygosity was 0.78 ranging from 0.51 to 0.95, and the gene diversity was quite high (0.78). All these data suggest that high level of genetic diversity existed in the red Asian arowana population.