Polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers for the marine gastropod Littorina subrotundata

Coastal habitats of the northern temperate zone are home to over 19 species of Littorina. Due to its widespread abundance and phenotypic diversity, members of this genus have been the model system of choice for numerous ecological and evolutionary studies. Although mitochondrial DNA has been useful in the study of population structure in Littorina, it is clear from recent data that faster-evolving markers are needed for fine-scale metapopulation analysis. To this end, we have isolated 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci for Littorina subrotundata, a direct-developing species from the North Pacific. We report preliminary data evaluating their potential utility as high-resolution genetic markers for this model taxon. The general methods for the isolation of simple sequence loci outlined in Rassmann et al. (1991) were followed, with the following alterations.