DNA Fingerprinting in Fish : A new Generation of Genetic Markers

The recently discovered "families of hypervariable minisatellites" have proved to be a valuable source of genetic markers in humans and other animals species. Several members of these families can be visualized simultaneously by Southern blot hybridization to yield individual-specific "DNA fingerprints". These fingerprints, also called "bar codes" are efficient genetic tools with a wide variety of applications, such as individual identification, paternity testing, and linkage analysis. We have demonstrated that similar individual-specific DNA fingerprintings can be obtained from a fish, the common barbel, Barbus barbus, by using four probes known to reveal hyper variability in humans and other species : wild - type M13 bacteriophage, Jeffrey's core sequence, the human a-globin hypervariable region, and a mouse probe related to the Drosophila Per gene. These DNA fingerprints may provide fish biologists with a powerful tool in ecological, behavioral, and population studies.