Assessing and Screening of Female Fertility in Artificially Bred Asian Yellow Pond Turtles (Mauremys mutica) Based on Parentage Assignment

Abstract

The Asian yellow pond turtle (Mauremys mutica) is widely traded in China, and its artificial breeding has now become a major industry. However, the insufficient offspring supply and reproductive decline of farmed turtles make the wild turtles more vulnerable. The present study was mainly designed to quantify the fecundity of M. mutica and attempt to screen for good reproductive performance in females. The genetic variability of the population and its genetic structure were also analysed. The parent–offspring relationships of all offspring in four consecutive years were confirmed using sixteen microsatellite loci. The genetic variability between the parents and offspring was low, and offspring of different years also showed little variability. We summarised the reproductive results of all females and counted the annual number of offspring and the variation in the number of offspring. The females were then divided into three types (stable, undulating and levelling off) according to the continuity. We selected seven females with good reproductive ability, which provided 16.94% of the annual contributions, while there were two females that had no offspring in four years. We also analysed the possible reasons for this difference and the importance of carrying out a family survey. This research can provide the basis and materials for the creation of a good reproductive group and the study of the reproductive biology of turtles in M. mutica aquaculture.