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The largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is a member of the sunfish family, Centrarchidae. This species is native to the midwestern and southeastern United States and northeastern Mexico. Largemouth bass have been introduced throughout the United States and many other countries worldwide. It is one of the most popular sport fish in the United States. It is not speculative to say that there has been extensive research on largemouth bass for several years, however, the work has almost exclusively concentrated on hatchery production and fisheries management. This interest for largemouth bass is coming from an increasing demand for large bass for supplemental stocking in sportfish ponds, and their use in commercial "trophy" lakes.

The Florida largemouth bass (Microperus salmoides floridanus) is separated morphologically, physiologically, and ecologically from the northern subspecies (M. s. salmoides). There are marked performance differences between the two subspecies. Genetically it is possible to diferentiate the two subspecies, curently there are two types of genetic analysys to do so. One of the technique, allozyme analysis, involves protein electrophoresis under native conditions and enzymatic staining of certain enzymes. This method requires muscle and liver tissues as testing material, or fish samples has to be delivered live. The tissue samples must be transported to the testing facilities under ultra-low temperatures for better results. The other technique, microsatellite analysis, uses fin-clips or other tissues as the testing material and does not necessitates low temperature transportation. Both techniques uses,in the case of allozyme analysis, multipe markers to scan the protein make-up of the fish, and in the case of microsatellite analysis, scan the DNA or the genetic make up of the fish. Readers are encouraged to read scientific articles behind using these technology to diferentiate Florida and Northern largemouth bass.

• David P. Philipp, William F. Childers, Gregory S. Whitt. (1981) Management Implications for Different Genetic Stocks of Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) in the United States. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 38:1715-1723.
• Lutz-Carrillo D.J., Hagen C., Dueck L.A. & Glenn T. (2008) Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci for Florida largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus, and other micropterids. Molecular Ecology Resources 8, 178-184.

Our laboratory performs genetic analysis of largemouth bass to determine if the sample is Florida largemouth bass (M. s. floridanus) or northern largemouth bass (M. s. salmoides). We can analyze samples either using allozyme markers (sAAT-B, sIDHP -Philipp et al. 1983) or microsatellite markers (Lma12, Mdo3, Mdo6, Mdo7, Msa13, Msa21 -Lutz-Carrillo et al. 2006), depending on the turnaround time required. Following are the guidelines and pricing for largemouth bass genetic analysis: