Development and characterization of novel microsatellite loci for Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus

Carla Sousa-Santos; Paulo J Fonseca; Maria Clara P Amorim

doi:10.7717/peerj.731

Development and characterization of novel microsatellite loci for Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus

PeerJ. 2015 Jan 20:3:e731. doi: 10.7717/peerj.731. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Carla Sousa-Santos¹, Paulo J Fonseca², Maria Clara P Amorim¹

Affiliations

¹ MARE-Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ISPA-Instituto Universitário , Rua Jardim do Tabaco, Lisbon , Portugal.
² Departamento de Biologia Animal and Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa , Campo Grande, Lisbon , Portugal.

Abstract

The Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus is an eastern Atlantic polygynous species showing male paternal care. In this paper we describe 5 novel microsatellite loci obtained by 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing of a microsatellite-enriched library. The number of alleles per polymorphic locus varied between 2 and 4, and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.082 to 0.600. No significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was found and there was no evidence for linkage disequilibrium. These markers will be of great value for paternity studies and population genetics of this species.

Keywords: Batrachoididae; Microsatellite development; Paternity; Polymorphic loci; Pyrosequencing.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the European Fund for Economic and Regional Development (FEDER) through the Program Operational Factors of Competitiveness (COMPETE) and National Funds through the FCT—Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology, under the Eco-Ethology Research Unit Strategic Plan (PEst-OE/MAR/UI0331/2011) and the project PTDC/MAR/118767/2010. CSS was supported by a Post-doctoral grant from FCT (SFRH/BPD/29774/2006). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.