A recent mitochondrial (mt) DNA survey revealed that the native Japanese population of the common carp has been endangered by the introduction of non-native domesticated strains: more than half of the haplotypes detected so far in Japanese waters originated from Eurasian strains. In expectation that Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater body in Japan, contains a relatively pure native population, we conducted a survey of mtDNA haplotypes in the lake, collecting 856 common carp from 40 localities in the lake. Of these, 606 specimens were caught by various nets (gill net, set net, net trap, etc.) used at depths from 1 to 5 m, 148 specimens were caught by a trawl net used at depths from 30-70 m, and 102 specimens that had washed ashore during mass mortality caused by Koi herpes virus (KHV) in 2004 were collected by hand. For each of the specimens, the mitochondria- encoded cytochrome b gene was genotyped (Japanese native or non-native haplotypes) by PCR using allele-specific primers. Analysis of haplotype frequencies showed that the native Japanese haplotype was significantly more frequent in deep off-shore waters and waters along the steep northern coast of the North Basin (about 80% on average), than in shallow coastal waters in the South Basin and waters along the eastern coast of the North Basin (less than 50% on average). These results indicate that the deep waters of the lake may contain a relatively pure native population that is of prime importance for conserving the native Japanese common carp. Among the results, it is notable that more than 90% of the KHV-killed specimens had native Japanese haplotypes.
