Microsatellite DNA reveals genetically different populations of Atlantic bonito Sarda sarda in the Mediterranean Basin

• Microsatellites population genetic structure of Atlantic bonito Sarda sarda.
• Pairwise FST estimates for all loci between populations ranged from 0 to 0.07626.
• Statistical analysis revealed three genetically populations distict.

Microsatellites were used to investigate population genetic structure of Atlantic bonito Sarda sarda from the Black Sea, Marmara Sea, Aegean Sea, north-eastern Mediterranean Sea and Adriatic Sea. Overall average observed heterozygosity was high (0.93). Average observed heterozygosity per locus ranged from 0.79 to 0.98. Pairwise FST estimates for all loci between populations ranged from 0 to 0.07626, and significant FST values (P < 0.001) were detected between populations; the Blacks Sea and Marmara Sea samples were not significantly different from each other, but significant different from the other samples, and Aegean Sea and north-eastern Mediterranean Sea samples were also not significantly different from each other, but significantly different from all other samples. The Adriatic Sea sample was significant different from all other samples. The Mantel test revealed a significant (P < 0.001, r = 0.68) isolation-by-distance for these 11 populations. Neighbour-joining analysis clustered the Black Sea and Marmara Sea samples together while collections from Aegean Sea and north-eastern Mediterranean Sea were clustered close to each other and far from the others. On the other hand, the Adriatic Sea collection presented very distinctive relationship from the others.