en Genetics Genetics پژوهشي Orginal research papers <font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font><p class="Default" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt text-align: justify mso-line-height-alt: 1.2pt"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">In order to have a sustainable management on Persian sturgeon as a highly commercial species in the South Caspian Sea, we need to identify its population structure and the level as well as its conservation status in their natural habitat. To develop a conservation program for this all Caspian Sea' sturgeon species it requires knowledge of its genetic diversity using reliable molecular marker to study population genetic structure. For these purposes, an enriched library was prepared <span style="color: windowtext">based on a modified biotin-capture method</span></font><span style="font-size: 10pt">. </span><font size="3">Approximately 1800 positive clones were screened for microsatellites in an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Acipenser persicus </i>genomic library. Of these 350 positively hybridizing clones were sequenced, and 81 clones were identified as having microsatellites with adequate flanking regions. We developed and tested 68 microsatellite primer pairs for Persian sturgeon. Out of 68 primer pairs developed, 11 pairs resulted in poor or no amplification, 13 were ambiguous, 6 were monomorphic, 20 were tetrasomic and 18 were octosomic in Persian sturgeon. While none of the markers showed disomic inheritance in Persian sturgeon and Russian sturgeon (<i>A</i>. <i>gueldenstaedtii</i>). Several of the markers appeared useful for studies stellate sturgeon (<i>A. stellatus</i>), ship sturgeon (<i>A.nudiventris</i>) and beluga (<i>Huso</i> <i>huso</i>).</font><span style="font-size: 11.5pt mso-bidi-font-weight: bold mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> </span><font size="3">Nearly all the polymorphic pattern for ship, stellate and beluga displayed the simple banding patterns characteristic of disomic loci, while those for Russian sturgeon displayed banding patterns characteristic of tetraploid or higher polyploid levels.</font><span style="font-size: 11.5pt mso-bidi-font-weight: bold mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> These markers may</span><font size="3"> prove useful in a variety of future sturgeon population genetic studies in the <st1:place w:st="on">Caspian Sea</st1:place>.</font></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font> Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus, Caspian Sea, Microsatellite, Population genetic 548 558 http://jifro.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-177&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M. Moghim mehdi.moghim@gmail.com 10031947532846003985 10031947532846003985 Yes E. J. Heist 10031947532846003986 10031947532846003986 No S. G. Tan 10031947532846003987 10031947532846003987 No M. Pourkazemi 10031947532846003988 10031947532846003988 No S. S. Siraj 10031947532846003989 10031947532846003989 No J. M. Panandam 10031947532846003990 10031947532846003990 No R. Pourgholam 10031947532846003991 10031947532846003991 No D. Kor 10031947532846003992 10031947532846003992 No F. Laloei 10031947532846003993 10031947532846003993 No M. J. Taghavi 10031947532846003994 10031947532846003994 No