Genetic diversity of Artemia populations in Lake Urmia, Iran

Urmia Lake is one of the largest permanent hypersaline lakes in the world, located in northwestern Iran. It is one the permanent habitats for the genus Artemia. This thesis deals with the study of the genetic diversity of the Artemia population in the lake. It was assumed that the information obtained by conducting several genetic and life span characterization studies can provide better insight into the Artemia population in Urmia Lake. Additionally the aim of this study was to assess and improve molecular analyses as a tool to describe inter- and intraspecific diversity of the Artemia populations from Iran. In this thesis, a new molecular marker was developed to identify the parthenogenetic strain co-occurring with bisexual Artemia in Urmia Lake. In addition, in order to investigate the temporal population diversity of Artemia from Urmia Lake, subfossil cyst samples were recovered from the sediment which was dated to 5000-6700 YBP and identified as parthenogenetic Artemia. Another study of this thesis describes the population diversity among Artemia samples, originating from different areas of Urmia Lake, using a mtDNA molecular marker and various phenotypic characteristics. The experimental data bring us to the conclusion that only combined efforts in which selectable molecular markers are joined with phenotypic traits, covering representative numbers of populations, can provide sufficient complementary information for a maximal understanding of the biodiversity of the genus Artemia in Urmia Lake