IDENTIFYING THE BEST GENETICALLY DISTINCT LARGEMOUTH BASS POPULATIONS FOR BREEDING AND FAST GROWTH IN THE NCR  

Largemouth bass (LMB) is an important aquaculture species in the Midwest and throughout the U.S. Interest in improving commercial culture efficiency has grown due to the great demand and high value compared to other cultured species. One of impediments is the rearing of LMB stocks with little to no domestication or selective breeding for efficient production. Therefore, strain evaluation and identification of the best genetically distinct largemouth bass populations for breeding and fast growth in the North Central Region (NCR) is needed.

In this study, twenty-six populations were genotyped using eight microsatellite markers. Across all 26 populations sampled, W190 locus in DFF-MO population had the highest number of alleles (18), three populations (CFAAS - IL, CSFH-MO and JWSFH-IL) had the least alleles (2) in locus Mdo6. The average number of alleles across all loci was the highest (11.375) in the population DFF-MO and the lowest (7.375) in populations VSS-IL and WFF-AL. The values of observed heterozygosities per population were detected from 0.701 to 0.887. The expected heterozygosities were from 0.649 to 0.887. The FSFH-KS population had the highest gene diversity and JWSFH-IL population had the lowest one. The allele richness per population was highest in DFF-MO population (9.136), the lowest in WFF-AL population (4.542).

Genetic divergence statistics obtained by AMOVA were significant at all hierarchical levels. When all 26 populations were grouped together and all loci were considered, 4% of the variation was detected among populations, and 88% of the variation was found within individuals. However, only 8% of the variation was detected among individuals within populations.