Development and characterization of microsatellite loci for the haploid-diploid red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla

Nicole M Kollars; Stacy A Krueger-Hadfield; James E Byers; Thomas W Greig; Allan E Strand; Florian Weinberger; Erik E Sotka

doi:10.7717/peerj.1159

Development and characterization of microsatellite loci for the haploid-diploid red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla

PeerJ. 2015 Aug 11:3:e1159. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1159. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Nicole M Kollars^#^{1

2}, Stacy A Krueger-Hadfield^#¹, James E Byers³, Thomas W Greig⁴, Allan E Strand¹, Florian Weinberger⁵, Erik E Sotka¹

Affiliations

¹ Grice Marine Laboratory and the Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.
² Current affiliation: Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
³ Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
⁴ Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Charleston, SC, USA.
⁵ Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Ozeanforschung Kiel (GEOMAR), Kiel, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Microsatellite loci are popular molecular markers due to their resolution in distinguishing individual genotypes. However, they have rarely been used to explore the population dynamics in species with biphasic life cycles in which both haploid and diploid stages develop into independent, functional organisms. We developed microsatellite loci for the haploid-diploid red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla, a widespread non-native species in coastal estuaries of the Northern hemisphere. Forty-two loci were screened for amplification and polymorphism. Nine of these loci were polymorphic across four populations of the extant range with two to eleven alleles observed. Mean observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.265 to 0.527 and 0.317 to 0.387, respectively. Overall, these markers will aid in the study of the invasive history of this seaweed and further studies on the population dynamics of this important haploid-diploid primary producer.

Keywords: Biological invasions; Complex life cycles; Gracilaria vermiculophylla; Haploid-diploid; Microsatellites; Seaweed.

Grants and funding

This project was supported by NSF OCE-1057707 to JEB, OCE-1057713 to EES and OCE-1357386 to EES, SAKH and AES, as well as College of Charleston Graduate Research Grants, a Phycological Society of America Grants-in-Aid-of-Research Fellowship, and the Zostera Experimental Network Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF OCE-1031061 to JE Duffy) to NMK. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.