Genetic diversity and structure of Northern Sheatfish (Silurus soldatovi) assessed by newly developed and cross‐species microsatellites

Twenty‐five polymorphic microsatellite markers, including 13 newly isolated markers and 12 existing cross‐species markers, were used to assess the genetic variation of 141 individuals from three cultured stocks of northern sheatfish, Silurus soldatovi, in China. Samples were collected from Heilongjiang (H), Tongerpu (T) and Liaoning (L). Allelic richness, expected and observed heterozygosity among 25 loci were calculated, and the mean A_e, H_o and H_e were estimated in three stocks. In low polymorphic locus HLJcf19 and HLJcf38, most individuals in all three stocks were homozygous and had only one same allele, while only few heterozygous individuals had the other allele in one certain stock. And all the three stocks showed excess of heterozygotes, because of significant negative F_IS values. Genetic distance, UPGMA dendrogram, as well as structure analysis, all indicated that Stock H and L were closer among three stocks. The results revealed that though all stocks had no reduction in recent time, their effective population size were significantly lower to the ideal value.