51813_Sturgeon biodioversity an.PDF

sue). Our data were polarized using other Actinop- found (Brown et al. 1992b, 1993). Fifty percent ofA.
terygii,PolypterusandAmia.We also attempted a mediostris studied were also heteroplasmic; D-
synthesis of morphological, karyological and mole- loops of these individuals included from one to four
cular characters as related to relationships among repeats (Brown et al. 1996). The average size of
Acipenseriformes. Finally, we examined interrela- mtDNA of the lake stugeon,A. fulvescensis ap-
tionships among representatives of Artyukhins spe- proximately the same as that of white sturgeon,
cies groups proposed forAcipenser(see above). 16.6-16.9kb (Guènette et al. 1993, Ferguson et al.
Whereas our examination of acipenseriform taxa 1993)or 16.1–16.5 kb (Browm et al.1996).No hetero-
concentrated on comparisons of species belonging plasmy was detected in A. fulvescens andA. oxyrin-
to different genera or species within the gemsAci- chus(Brown et al. 1996). All individuals of A. ful-
penser most previous workers have concentrated vescensstudied had one of five possible mtDNA
on intraspecies structure using the control region size variants which closely corresponded to A.
(D-loop) of the mtDNA. Buroker et al. (1990) transmontanuswith one to five repeat units. InA.
showed that in the American white sturgeon,Aci- oxyrinchus,nearly every individual was fixed for
pensertransmontanus,mtDNA size varies between mtDNA roughly equivalent in size to the smallest
16.1 and 16.7 kb depending on the number of tan- repeat found in the other species. Restriction analy-
demly repeated 82 nucleotide sequences in the con- sis of mtDNA (Bowen & Avise 1990, Avise 1992)
trol region of the mtDNA. Nearly 50% of the indi- and partial sequencing of the control region (Mira-
viduals studied by Brown et al. (1992a) were hetero- sle & Campton 1995, Ong et al. 1996, Wirgin et al.
plasmic (i.e., had multiple copies of different 1997 this volume) were used for inferring relation-
mtDNA types within an individual) lor length vari- ships between subspecies and populations of , A. oxy-
ation, with six different mt DNA length variants

Table 5.List of sturgeon species and blood samples studied.

Species Species Geographical region Number of blood (or Collector

number tissue) samples

1. Acipenser baerii^1 Lena River, Siberia, Russia
   (Moscow Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein


2. A. brevorustrum Connecticut River, MA,USA (eggs) B. Kynard


3. A. gueldenstaedtii^1 Volga River, Russia (Moscow
   Aq uarium ) 2 V. Birstein


4. A.Mediostris Columbia River, OR,USA 1 J. North


5. A. mikadoi Tumnin River, Russia 2 (fragments of muscles) E. Artuykhin


6. A. nacarri Ferrara, Italy (Aquarium) 2 F. Fontana


7. A. nudiventris^1 Aral Sea, Uzbekistan (Moscow
   Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein
   8 A. oxyrinchus oxyrinchus Hudson River 2 (fragments of muscles) J. Waldman


8. A. rutthenus^1 Volga River, Russia (Moscow
   10. A. stellatus Volga River, Russia (Moscow
   11. A. transmontanus Columbia River, OR, USA 2 J. North


9. Huso dauricus Amur River, Siberia, Russia
   (Moscow Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein
   13. Pseudoscaphirhynchus kaufmanni^1 Amu-Darya River, Uzbekistan
   (Moscow Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein
   14. Scaphirhynchus albus Yellowstone River, MT, USA 2 M. Bollig
   15. Polyodon spathula Moscow Aquarium 1 V. Birstein

(^1) These samples were used for the DNA content measurements in Birstein et al. (1993); see Table 1 above.
Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein
Aquarium) 2 V. Birstein