USE OF LECTINS TO CHARACTERISE GENETIC VARIABILITY AND GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENTIATION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF

• Main Authors: Thunnus Alalunga (bonn, Eduardo Costas
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Indian; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.529.3698; http://www.iccat.int/Documents/CVSP/CV054_2002/no_5/CV054051495.pdf

New tools from cell and molecular biology can be used to implement the knowledge of fish biology and fisheries. In this sense, we suggest that the use of lectins can be an understandable procedure to study population structure of fishes. Lectins are proteins or glycoproteins of non-immune origin that agglutinate cells and/or precipitate complex carbohydrates. Several lectins behave like blood group antibodies and can be used as specific gene markers. We characterise blood groups of Thunnus alalunga worldwide populations under a population genetics point of view using lectins. Fishes from several populations of Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans were captured and 5 mL blood was obtained from each fish. Each fish was treated with 8 FITC-labelled lectins. The binding activity of the lectins was detected using a fluorescence assay. Several statistical procedures of populations genetics were employed to analyse genetic variability, geographic differentiation, and genetic distance showing that: i) there is genetic variability within Thunnus alalunga populations, ii) we detect highly significant heterogeneity among populations, and considerable geographic differentiation, iii) Mediterranean population is quite distant of North Atlantic population, iv) North and South Atlantic populations are extremely distant, v) Pacific population is the most distant from the