Astyanax caucanus: microsatellite loci development and population genetics in the Cauca River, Colombia

Abstract

Astyanax caucanus is an endemic fish species to the Magdalena-Cauca basin in Colombia. It is considered a Least Concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and currently, it is not a fishery resource. Its fertilized eggs may drift up to 4–5 days before hatching and can be carried up to 340 km given the water velocity of the river. Although A. caucanus is listed as short -migratory species (< 50 km), this study hypothesized that it exhibits gene flow along the middle and lower section of the Cauca River due to the great potential for larval dispersal. To test this hypothesis, we developed a set of species-specific microsatellite primers suitable for population genetic studies. Genetic structure analyses with 193 samples evidenced two genetic stocks that coexist, comigrate, and exhibit gene flow along the study area. Both stocks show high genetic diversity indices (Na and HE) and effective population sizes (Ne > 1000), but also show evidence of bottlenecked populations and high values of the inbreeding coefficient (FIS). Finally, these results are useful to understand the effects of other anthropic activities, besides fishing pressure on population bottlenecks found for other fish species cohabiting the area.