Isolation and characterization of 49 polymorphic microsatellite loci for Decapterus maruadsi using SLAF-seq, and cross-amplification to related species

Decapterus maruadsi is a commercially important species in China, but has been heavily exploited in some areas. There is a growing need to develop microsatellites promoting its genetic research for the adequate management of this fishery resources. The recently developed specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) is an efficient and high-resolution method for genome-wide microsatellite markers discovery. In this study, 28 905 microsatellites (mono- to hexa-nucleotide repeats) were identified using SLAF-seq technology, of which di-nucleotide was the most frequent (13 590, 47.02%), followed by mono-nucleotide (8 138, 28.15%), tri-nucleotide (5 727, 19.81%), tetra-nucleotide (1 104, 3.82%), pentanucleotide (234, 0.81%), and hexa-nucleotide (112, 0.39%). One hundred and thirty-two microsatellite loci (di- and tri-nucleotide) were randomly selected for amplification and polymorphism, of which 49 were highly polymorphic and well-resolved. The average number of alleles per locus was 13.63, ranging from 4 to 25, and allele sizes varied between 110 bp and 309 bp. The observed heterozygosity ( H o ) and expected heterozygosity ( H e ) ranged from 0.233 to 1.000 and from 0.374 to 0.959, with mean values of 0.738 and 0.836, respectively. The polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.341 to 0.941 (mean=0.806). However, 12 loci deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Furthermore, transferability tests were also successful in validating the utility of the developed markers in five phylogenetically related species of family Carangidae. A total of 48 microsatellite markers were successfully cross-amplified in Decapterus macarellus, Decapterus macrosoma, Decapterus kurroides, Trachurus japonicus, and Selaroides leptolepis . The present microsatellites provided the first known set of microsatellite DNA markers for D. maruadsi , D. macarellus , D. kurroides , and D. macrosoma , and would be useful for further population genetic and molecular phylogeny studies as well as help with the fisheries management formulation and implementation of the understudied species.