First report for existence of Artemia franciscana coexistence with endemic parthenogenetic Artemia population in inside of the Lake Maharlu, Iran
Ramin Manaffar1*, Afag Falahati2, Abdolmajid Moshtagiyan2, Seyed morteza Mosavi2, Behroz Atashbar1 and Alireza Asem3,4
1) Artemia and Aquatic Animals Research Institute, Urmia University, Urmia, IRAN
3) Protectors of Urmia Lake National Park Society (NGO), Urmia, IRAN
4) West Bio-Processor Inc., Urmia, IRAN
Summary:
Artemia is a dominant animal not only in aquaculture but also in many scientific studies. It has 7 species and some of these species because of its life spans and special toleration to different biological and ecological condition variability was more distributed on all continents by propose or by birds. Artemia urmiana and several kind of parthenogenetic Artemia are endemic populations in the Lake Urmia and Maharlu Lake and also in some temporal lagoons in Iran. Maharlu Lake is the second salt lake in Iran. The Lake is 18 km far from Shiraz, the capital of Shiraz province, in north center of Iran. This lake has occupied 175 km2 in spring. The average depth of the Lake is 0.5 to 1 meter. Endemic parthenogenetic Artemia population in inside of Lake is named to its habitat, Maharlu Lake. A long of a comprehensive study in 2004, on endemic parthenogenesis Artemia population in Maharlu Lake a large quantity of Male Artemia were found in inside of the Lake. Preliminary biometric and morphologic studies on this new group of Artemia revolved a bisexual Artemia population that was very dominant to Artemia franciscana. This bisexual Artemia is one of most famous species that was material for lots of researchers and is the lonely dominant species for commercial proposes. Contamination of some natural habitat by this species in recent years that molecular and morphological markers are progressing was reported more and more in all worlds. In order to distinguish the species of this new population, Cross-breeding tests were conducted between the population of A. franciscana (San Francisco bay) that hatched in laboratory isolation condition and the new permanent Artemia population in the lake of Maharlu. For this propose the individuals of both Artemia populations from Maharlu lake (bisexuals and parthenogenetic) were separated in male and female. At least 200 individual of females put in to 50ml Falcon Tubes and fed by yeast and unicellular Algae in standard method. All females, in 30 day, that they could to reproduce nauplii or cyst (viviparous or oviparous reproduction type) were separated to a new group that coupled with the male of A. franciscana in standard Lab condition. In second experiment 60 individual of the males that were taken from the Lake, coupled with female of Artemia franciscana. In both groups as result of identification, infertility was noticed among the crosses conducted between any ability in cyst or nauplii production for at least 2-3 times were noticed. The results of the morphological and cross breeding experiments revolved of existence of Artemia franciscana in inside of the lake.
