Population Characterization of Four Cultured Tilapia Species Using Random Amplified Polymorphic Dna (RAPD) Markers

The present research work was conducted with the aim of characterization of four cultured tilapia species populations namely Oreochromis niloticus, Oreochromis aureus, Oreochromis galilaeus, and Tilapia zilli using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. To achieve such a purpose, a total number of 40 apparently healthy fishes (10 from each of the four species) were obtained from Fish Research Centre, Suez Canal University (Ismailia, Egypt) .Bulked samples from each population were examined by RAPD-PCR technique using nine random10- mer primers (OPA-12, OPA-13, OPA-14 OPA-15, OPA-17, OPA-18, OPA-19, OPA-20, OPO- 11). The results of this experiment revealed that the 9 primers produced a total of 177 easily scorable RAPD bands ranged in molecular size from approximately 149 to 2787 bp. Dendrogram indicates that he genetic similarity between O. niloticus and T.zilli was higher compared with that between O.niloticus and both S.galilaeus and O.aureus . Also, between S.galilaeus and O.aureus the similarity was low compared with that of T.zilli . In conclusion, population characterization of tilapia speciesin this study had provided a baseline for future genetic improvement and monitoring ofthe gene pools of cultured tilapia stocks.