Parentage Assignment in Brown trout strains (Salmo trutta) and their hybrids using microsatellite markers

Brown trout, Salmo trutta is a widespread fish species throughout the Europe yet most of the natural populations of the species is in decline due to the anthropogenic pressures. Hatchery based stock enhancement is commonly used to restore depleted populations. Tracking pedigree information is useful for evaluating performance of stocked offspring and for examining introgression where hatchery-based stocking programs are being implemented. In this study, parentage assignment powers of 16 previously developed microsatellite markers have been evaluated in four brown trout strains and their hybrids. The number of alleles per locus ranged between 3 (Str73INRA) -24 (T3-13). Observed (HO) and expected heterozygosity HE were between 0.188-0.854 and 0.175-0.903, respectively. According to the simulation analysis with prior known parental and filial information, of the 204 offspring tested, correct assignment rate of 8 most informative microsatellite marker to their parental pairs was 96.08% and ...