An assessment of genetic diversity in wild and captive populations of endangered Japanese bitterling <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tanakia tanago</Emphasis> (Cyprinidae) using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers

ABSTRACT:   The Japanese bitterling Tanakia tanago (Cyprinidae) is on the verge of extinction in the wild, placing great importance on captive breeding programs for current conservation of the species. However, the loss of genetic diversity during captive breeding is an ongoing matter of concern. Since some captive populations have been almost monomorphic in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), this hampers assessments of their genetic diversity during captive breeding. To more accurately assess their genetic diversity, one wild and three captive populations were examined using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Estimates of average heterozygosity and nucleotide diversity ranged 0.0479–0.1920 and 0.0023–0.0088, respectively, enabling comparison of genetic diversity among the wild and captive populations, and among year-classes of captive populations. Significant differences in numbers of amplified fragments and proportions of polymorphic fragments were observed among year-classes of all populations. The indices of genetic diversity calculated from AFLP seemed to be, however, less sensitive to weak bottlenecks. No continuous decrease in genetic diversity in nuclear DNA was detected in presently captive populations. This supports the possibility of re-introduction of the captive populations into the original habitats, although survival and reproductive ability in the wild must be taken into consideration.