Detection of two major cytochrome b lineages in pike-perch, Sander lucioperca, and first data on their distribution in European populations

Despite of the growing interest in pike-perch for aquaculture and its economic importance in fisheries, knowledge on the population structure and phylogeography of the species is still limited. We report the discovery of two major cytochrome b lineages and describe a simple method for their detection based on PCR amplification followed by restriction digestion with Alw26I. Screening of 708 individuals showed that haplotype A was fixed or dominating in Central and East European countries, whereas haplotype B was mainly found in several French populations and Tunisian pike-perch introduced from Europe. Sequencing the complete cytochrome b cds of 17 representative individuals revealed that haplotypes A and B differed by five substitutions but also showed further differentiation of both haplotypes due to an additional substitution in a single haplotype A and B individual from France, respectively. Five partial pike-perch cytochrome b cds available from NCBI GenBank could also clearly be assigned to one or the other of the two major lineages. Therefore, this new mtDNA marker might be considered as suitable not only for studies on population structure and phylogeography of pikeperch but also to trace its introduction history and to assess the genetic composition of aquaculture brood stocks.