The goal of this project is to understand the genetic variation within and among three populations of the freshwater mussel, Lampsilis reeviana (Arkansas Brokenray), in the South Fork and Spring rivers, both located in Arkansas. To achieve this goal, we screened 12 microsatellite primer pairs that amplify L. reeviana DNA. Second, we used these primer loci to analyze gene frequencies and infer gene flow in and between populations of L. reeviana.  Our first hypothesis is that primers that work for other Lampsilis species will work for L. reeviana.  Our hypothesis for the second objective is that genetic variation will be highest within populations of L. reeviana rather than among populations. 

Results/Conclusions

Nine of 12 primer pairs amplified L. reeviana DNA, and eight of these were polymorphic.  For the first three loci analyzed, there was an average of 8 alleles per locus.  Our results for these three loci show that genetic variation within the population sites is high in this species while among population variation is low. This suggests that populations in these streams are highly affected by host fishes, such as the smallmouth bass and the largemouth bass.