International Journal of Genetics 2(1): 01-05, 2012 ISSN 2222-1301 © IDOSI Publications, 2012 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.ijg.2012.2.1.6494 Coresponding Author: M. Serajuddin, Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, India, 226007. 1 Genetic Diversity in Barred Spiny Eel Macrognathus pancalus (Hamilton 1822) Sampled in Ganges River Basin, India B.C. Pathak and M. Serajuddin Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, India Abstract: The random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) was applied to analyze the genetic variation in the populations of barred Spiny eel Macrognathus pancalus, in Ganges river basin of Uttar Pradesh, India. The two random primers -1, (5'-GTTTCGCTCC-3') and primers -3, (5'- CATCCCCCTG-3') were used in order to determining their genetic diversity. These primers produced polymorphic as well as monomorphic loci. The polymorphic locus indicates the genetic variation among the populations. The Random primer -1(5'-GTTTCGCTCC-3') shows the 13.43% polymorphism in the population of River Gomti, while the same primer shows more polymorphic loci (20.59%) in the population of River Ghaghra. The random primer, Ran-3(5'-CATCCCCCTG-3') shows the more polymorphic loci (33.68%) in the population of River Gomti, while in the population of Ghaghra less polymorphic loci (8.82%) were present. The number of more polymorphic loci in population of river Gomti indicates its more genetic variability as compared to the population of River Ghaghara. These differences in the genetic structure among the populations of barred spiny eel should be taken into consideration for the conservation of M.pancalus. Key words: Macrognathus pancalus %RAPD %Polymorphic INTRODUCTION least concern according to IUCN status [10]. In spite of its Genetic diversity (synomouse genetic variability, information available on the extent of molecular genetic intraspecific diversity and biological diversity on gene structure in this species, hence the present study was level) represents the existence of variants or alleles of an attempted to investigate the genetic variability of M. individual genes resulting from the alteration of DNA pancalus populations using RAPD markers. sequences. The genetic diversity of particular species is distributed both within population (expressed as different MATERIALS AND METHODS allele combination between individuals) and between the population (difference in occurrence and frequency Sampling: Geographically, populations of M. pancalus between populations).Now a day’s molecular markers are were caught from the River Gomti at the Lucknow region used in order to discriminate genetic diversity. The (27N°81°E) as well as the river Ghaghra at Faizabad randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis is (.26N°82°E).Both are rivers of Ganges basin. A thirty three a technique based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) fish sample was collected for the RAPD analysis. amplification of discrete regions of genome with short oligonucleotide primers of arbitrary sequence [1,2]. This Genomic DNA Isolation: For the isolation of total techniques has been used extensively to detect genetic genomic DNA, phenol chloroform method was used. diversity in animals [3]. RAPD analysis has also been Muscular tissue (200-500 mg) were placed in a 2 ml micro- used to evaluate genetic diversity for species and centrifuge tube with 500 μl lysis buffer and the tissue subspecies identification in guppy [4], tilapia [5,6] and was homogenized properly by using Eppendorf catfish [7,8] On common carp by Bartfai et al. [9]. The micro-pestle. In the homozenized tissue again with 500 μl barred spiny eel Macrognathus pancalus (Hamilton lysis buffer (0.32M sucrose, 1M tris HCl, 1M MgCl ) and 1822),is an important freshwater food fish found to be 20% SDS, mix properly in a vertex and then incubate it distributed throughout South east Asia. It is listed as overnight at room temperature for complete lysis of cells. economic and scientific importance, to date, there is no 2