MICROSATELLITE MARKERS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN FISHERIES

Abstract

Microsatellites are the most popular and versatile genetic marker having various applications in population genetics, conservation biology, and evolutionary biology. They represent an abundant source of genetic markers which are highly polymorphic and dispersed evenly throughout eukaryotic genomes. Genetic variation arises between individuals leading to differentiation at the level of population, species and higher order taxonomic groups. Development of microsatellite markers has powerful ability to detect genetic variations between individuals, populations or species. Microsatellites represent ideal molecular markers as they are co-dominant in nature, highly polymorphic, easily typed, and Mendelian inherited, all properties which make them very suitable for the study of population structure and pedigree analysis. These properties make microsatellites an ideal genetic marker for conservation genetics and fisheries management These microsatellite markers combined with new statistical developments have revolutionized the analytical power, necessary to explore the genetic diversity and have become the markers of choice because of their wide range of application in population genetic, gene tagging, pedigree analysis, conservation and evolutionary biology.