Genetic diversity and structure of the commercially important native fish pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) from cultured and wild fish populations: relevance for broodstock management

Pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus) is one of the most important Neotropical freshwater fish species produced by aquaculture in South America. This study is the first attempt to inquire about aquaculture stocks in Argentina regarding genetic diversity and structure. Neither genetic characterization nor pedigree records are available for pacu stocks in farms in Argentina. The presence of hybrids in both natural environment (Lower Parana River) and farms has not been evaluated yet at the southern region of pacu distribution. Genetic characterization of pacu broodstocks, corresponding to 8 farms, and wild individuals from four areas at Lower Parana River was performed. Pacu hybrids were not detected neither in wild nor in farm stocks analyzed. In general, similar levels of genetic diversity were observed between cultured and wild fish populations. Global genetic differentiation (F-st = 0.055) indicated a low level of structure and AMOVA showed that genetic variation was mostly within populations. Reduced contemporary effective population size (Ne) was observed, and probably reflects the bottleneck by founder effect in farmed fish populations. Moreover, kinship analysis showed that in fish farms, on average, 43.00% of the individuals were genetically related, whereas in wild population it was 36.40%. We recommend that broodstock management practices, such as using large Ne, single pair mating, precise records, and tagging of brood fish, should be implemented to avoid unintentional mismanagement.

Automated summary

The study revealed similar levels of genetic diversity between cultured and wild fish populations. Global genetic differentiation was low, indicating that genetic variation mainly occurred within populations. However, a reduced contemporary effective population size was observed in farmed fish populations, possibly reflecting a bottleneck caused by founder effect.