Introduction: Artemia or brine shrimp is a small crustacean found in different parts of the world except the Arctic. This research was done considering the importance of molecular studies in identifying the species populations and the genetic diversity in bisexual and unisexual forms of Artemia (together and among populations).
Materials & Methods: Artemia were sampling from 9 regions (Shoor, Inche Borun, Namak, Hoze Sultan, Mighan, Maharlu, Bakhteghan, Urmia and Nogh Lakes) and 315 samples were used according phenol-chloroform method for DNA extraction. The primers were designed based on the sequence of Artemiaʹs mitochondrial ribosomal gene and PCR was performed. Enzymatic digestion of the PCR product was performed with 10 enzymes (AluI, Eco47I, HaeIII, HindIII, HinfI, MobI, MspI, RsaI, TaqI, EcoRI). After identifying genotypes and calculating haplotypes, haplotype and nucleotide diversity within a population, nucleotide diversity and divergence between populations and genetic distance between haplotypes with Reap analysis software and frequency of geographic heterogeneity of haplotypes with Chi-square test and Monte-Carlo simulation were calculated.
Results: This study showed the presence of 25 different haplotypes, including 9 haplotypes in Urmia, 4 in Shoor and Inche Borun, 4 in Nogh, 1 in Namak and Hoze Sultan, 3 in Mighan, 1 jointly in Bakhteghan and Maharlu, and 3 in Maharlu. The lowest haplotype diversity in the samples was found in Hoze Sultan, Namak and Bakhteghan and the highest amount was seen in Maharlu. The lowest amount of nucleotide diversity in the samples belonged to Hoze Sultan, Namak and Bakhteghan and the most belonged to Urmia. In nucleotide diversity among the samples, the lowest value was observed between Hoze Sultan and Namak and the highest value was observed between Inche Borun and Shoor with Nogh. Nucleotide divergence between the samples was the lowest for the Inche Borun and shoor and the highest value for the Inche Borun and Shoor with Nogh. In the evolutionary distance between haplotypes, the highest amount belonged to Nogh and Mighan haplotypes with Inche Borun and Shoor haplotypes.
Conclusion: The study of population separation based on the frequency of haplotypes showed a significant statistical difference, except in the comparison of Hoze Sultan with Namak and Inche Borun with shoor (p<0.001), and at the haplotype level, it is possible to separate the Artemia population in Iran into 7 population as Hoze Sultan - Namak, Mighan, Maharlu, Bakhteghan, Nogh, Urmia and Inche Borun - Shoor was provided. |
