Proof of the successful development of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) clones by DNA fingerprinting

In a study described in this paper, three different DNA-based techniques we re applied to check the success of gynogenesis in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Out of six potentially homozygous female mitogynes (clone foun ders), 837 gynogenetic and 427 diploid control offspring were produced. The aim of this investigation was to confirm the clonal status of the clone fo unders, the genetic uniformity of gynogenetic offspring from each clone fou nder and the genetic differences between clonal lines on DNA level. To dete rmine the inheritance of parental bands, a total of 150 putative gynogeneti c and 35 diploid control offspring were screened using the techniques of mu ltilocus DNA fingerprinting, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and si mple sequence repeat-anchored PCR (SSRa-PCR). These techniques were able to show that clone founders as well as gynogenetic offspring were genetically homozygous. Multilocus DNA fingerprinting and RAPD were used to demonstrat e that carryover of male chromosomal DNA by the use of UV-irradiated sperm for induction of gynogenesis did not occur and that the clonal lines could be accurately distinguished from each other. In contrast to these methods, the used primers in SSRa-PCR did not have the power to determine the absenc e of paternal genomic transmission due to a lack of visible informative pat ernal bands. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.