Comparative study of male and female gonads in Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) employing DNA-AFLP and CDNA-AFLP analysis

Summary The objectives of this study were to assess the utility of DNA‐ AFLP and cDNA‐AFLP approaches to identify genes which are potentially involved in sex determination. DNA‐AFLP results showed approximately a total of 3771 scoreable bands in Persian sturgeon without any sex specific maker. The cDNA‐AFLP results revealed two cDNA markers in female gonads (TDF1, TDF2), which have also been verified with RT‐PCR in male and female gonadic cDNA. However specific primers of TDF1 and TDF2 fragments could not be verified in genomic DNA and were amplified just in Persian sturgeon female gonads. It seems that in different sturgeon species, sex chromosomes are not completely differentiated while it may be possible that the sensitivity of used methods were not adequate.