Genetic variation has the potential to play a key role in selective breeding programs
for shrimp (Lester 1983). So far, mostly protein (allozyme) variability has been
extensively used in penaeid shrimp (Lester 1983; Sunden and Davis 1991), even
though RAPD is known to show higher polymorphism than allozymes (Avise 1994).
RAPD fingerprinting of three populations of M. dobsoni was carried out using five
random primers for 105 individuals (Fig. 1). Various primers revealed varying
degrees of polymorphism, ranging from 20.0% (primer P-04) to 50.0% (primers
P-02 and P-03). DNA fragments ranged from 212 to 1290 bp in size and 1–7 in
number (Table 1).