Two populations of lake minnow, Eupallasella percnurus (Pall.), from Bledzewo and Kowalicha were investigated. The Bledzewo population has existed for many decades, while Kowalicha was established between 2004 and 2006 by translocations of cultured juveniles. The genetic variation and genetic distance between these populations was evaluated. The size of the genetic bottleneck/founder effect that affected genetic variation was also investigated. In most of the examined microsatellite loci, only 2-3 alleles/population were detected. Heterozygosity across the investigated loci was low with ranges of Ho: 0.24-0.45 and He: 0.24-0.50. Both populations remained at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The M value was low, and suggested a reduction in the genetic variation because of the founder/bottleneck effect. The genetic distance between populations was high (FST 0.23, δμ2 2.96). High genetic differences existing between the investigated E. percnurus populations and possibly other ones suggest that the inter-population translocations of this species should be preceded by an evaluation of the genetic differences existing between source and destination populations.
