Longfin dace, Agosia chrysogaster (Girard 1856), is a member of the freshwater fish family Cyprinidae, and one the few remaining widespread and abundant native fishes of the Sonora Desert (Sublette et al. 1990; Minckley and Marsh 2009). Our objective was to develop rapidly-evolving microsatellite DNA markers for longfin dace that would facilitate studies of spatial and temporal genetic responses to disturbance and provide an important comparative dataset to evaluate conservation status of co-distributed endangered fishes (e.g., Tibbets and Dowling 1996). We isolated and characterized 16 microsatellite DNA loci in longfin dace, Agosia chrysogaster, a minnow native to Sonoran Desert streams (southwestern US and northwestern Mexico). After optimization, all primer pairs produced consistently scorable products.
Results/Conclusions
Genetic diversity metrics were determined for each locus using 50 individuals from two populations in the Gila River, New Mexico. Allelic richness ranged from two to 37 and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.08 to 0.95 across loci. These microsatellites offer a powerful tool to study effects of habitat fragmentation, dewatering, and climate change on population connectivity and genetic diversity in this species. Moreover, longfin dace co-occurs with more geographically restricted and endangered desert fish species. Genetic information for longfin dace could provide an important comparative dataset to assist conservation and management of other imperiled desert fishes.