Current genetic identification of pallid sturgeon

Current genetic identification of pallid sturgeon requires a stepwise, tiered approach using mitochondrial DNA markers to separate sturgeon from paddlefish.  Pallid sturgeon are discriminated from shovelnose sturgeon by analyses using a pair of nuclear DNA single nucleotide polymorphisms followed by definitive microsatellite analyses at 19 loci (flow diagram redrawn from Kashiwagi and others, 2019).