Isolation and characterization of DNA microsatellites for capelin Mallotus villosus population genetic studies

This study reports on the isolation and characterization of capelin Mallotus vil1osus DNA microsatellites and their potential use in population genetic studies. High numbers of dinucleotide repeats were detected among the isolated microsatellites. Primers and polymerase chain reaction conditions were developed for 17 polymorphic microsatellite markers, and in a test panel of 60 capelin the number of alleles at each locus ranged from 4 to 63, and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.11 to 0.95. Six loci showed an excess of homozygotes, presumably due to the presence of null alleles. The 11 other loci showed statistically significant population differentiation between samples from the NE and NW Atlantic, while little differentiation was detected within each of these regions.