Ganges River sprat, Corica soborna Hamilton, is an indigenous fish species and an excellent source of animal protein with medicinal values in Bangladesh. Samples from two populations of this fish species were collected from Kaptai Lake and Kirtankhola River in Bangladesh to elucidate their genetic diversity based on Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis. Ten primers were selected for this analysis: OPA-04; OPAL-04; OPA-03; OPF-01; OPG-05; OPG-04; OPA-09; OPAK-04; OPAW-09; OPA-02. A total of sixty-eight bands were found of which thirty-two were polymorphic and indicated a moderate level as 51.07% polymorphisms between these two fish populations. The size of the bands ranged between 200 to 1300 bp in their analysis. Based on the specific primer banding patterns, a maximum polymorphism of 100% was found for primer OPF-01; however, the lowest of 14.29% polymorphism was found for primer OPG-04 for these two populations. The genetic distance and genetic identity of 0.8210 and 0.4400, respectively, also indicated that these two populations were moderately distant from each other. A dendrogram based on Nei’s (1972) genetic distance was constructed using the Unweighted Pair Group Method of Arithmetic Means (UPGMA), and it segregated these two populations into one major cluster C1. Therefore, the present study revealed that these two Ganges River sprat populations are moderately genetically diversified. An effective management program and policy should be undertaken to conserve and manage these indigenous fish species in Bangladesh.
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