Morphometric and Genetic Analyzes of Indian Mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) from Peninsular India

A holistic approach, combining one phenotypic and two genotypic methods, was adopted to analyze possible population differences in Indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) from selected centers in the East and West coasts of India. Principal component analysis of truss landmark variables revealed that the area encompassing depth between the origin of anal and origin of second dorsal and caudal peduncle depth has high component loadings. Bivariate scatter plots of principal components showed a great degree of morphometric homogeneity between Indian mackerel populations from Mandapam, Kochi and Karwar. Clustering pattern of polypeptide markers revealed relatively greater population homogeneity among Mandapam fish (58%) than Kochi samples (33%). The three random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers used in the present study have generated a total of 59 loci varying in size from 560 to 4500 bp. None of the populations from Mandapam, Kochi and Karwar showed RAPD fragments of fixed frequencies, to be treated as population-specific markers. No significant differences were found among the three populations.