APPLICABILITY OF MICROSATELLITE PRIMERS DEVELOPED FROM SHOVELNOSE STURGEON IN CHINESE STURGEON

Twenty one pairs of microsatellite primers developed from shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) were tested on Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis). About 67% (14 loci) of the S.platorynchus primers amplified successfully with 48% (10 loci) being polymorphic. However, only 9 5% (2 loci) of these primers (Spl-100 Spl-168) produced clear and sharp products without stutter bands. Several amplified fragments produced by four pairs of the rest primers, which generated stutter bands in Chinese sturgeon, were sequenced. One of these four loci (Spl-123) was proved without repeat motif. Then, the other three, Spl-106,Spl-163, and Spl-70α, were redesigned with Primer premier 5.0 software and renamed as Spl-106a, Spl-163a, and Spl-170b. Further amplifications using these primers in Chinese sturgeon showed that Spl 106a and Spl 170b could give clear and polymorphic bands without any stutter, but Spl 163a did not get any bands. Moreover, motif sequences obtained by both Spl-106 and Spl-106a in Chinese sturgeon are the same but differ to those in shovelnose sturgeon. It seems that the redesigned primer Spl 106a could be a species specific primer for Chinese sturgeon, and we finally renamed it as As 100. This result indicates that it is viable to obtain species specific microsatellite primers by redesigning from the primers of related species.