Use of RAPD fingerprinting for delineating populations of hilsa shad Tenualosa ilisha (Hamilton, 1822).

RAPD was used to delineate the hilsa populations sampled from the Ganga, Yamuna, Hooghly, and Narmada Rivers at six different locations. Six degenerate primers were used to generate the fragment patterns from the samples collected. All primers were highly polymorphic and generated high numbers of amplification products. Nei's genetic distances were calculated between locations. The overall average genetic distance among all the six locations was 0.295. The Fst value within the Ganga was 0.469 and within the Hooghly it was 0.546. The overall Fst value for the six populations analyzed was 0.590. The UPGMA dendrogram clustered the hilsa into two distinct clusters: Ganga and Yamuna populations and the Hooghly and Narmada populations.