Abstract
The dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus, is a well-known and widespread marine fish assessed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Analyzing the genetic diversity of this species is, therefore, of utmost importance and necessary for conservation purposes. Microsatellites are molecular tools with advantages that are ideal for population analyses. This study provides the first set of species-specific microsatellite loci for E. marginatus that can be applied when assessing both intra- and interpopulation genetic variation. Twenty microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for the dusky grouper by genotyping 20 individuals obtained from the North Eastern Atlantic Ocean (n = 4) and from the South Western Atlantic Ocean (n = 16). The number of alleles per locus varied from 2 to 11, while the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.25 to 0.94 and 0.34 to 0.89, respectively. The polymorphic information content varied from moderately to highly informative. This suite of markers provides the first specific nuclear tools for E. marginatus and, thus, allows to assess with more specificity different populations’ structures.
Highlights
Epinephelidae, known as groupers, are considered commercially important marine resources by commercial and recreational coastal fisheries (Begossi and Silvano, 2008; Schunter et al, 2011)
Fishing data have shown a 50% decline in the overall dusky grouper catches from European countries between 1994 (7699 metric tons) and 2011 (869 metric tons) (Harmelin-Vivien and Craig, 2015). This population reduction combined with their life-history has led to an assessment of Endangered A2d status by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (Cornish and Harmelin-Vivien, 2004; Harmelin-Vivien and Craig, 2015)
Knowledge of intra- and intergenic diversity is important for planning the long-term conservation and recovery of marine fish resources through legal environmental protection and ecosystem-based fisheries management (Zhou et al, 2010)
Summary
Epinephelidae, known as groupers, are considered commercially important marine resources by commercial and recreational coastal fisheries (Begossi and Silvano, 2008; Schunter et al, 2011). As species-specific microsatellite marker have not yet been developed for E. marginatus, previous studies of population genetic diversity used microsatellites by cross-amplification (Sola et al, 1999; De Innocentiis et al, 2001; De Innocentiis et al, 2008; Schunter et al, 2011; Elglid et al, 2015; Buchholz-Sørensen and Vella, 2016; Reid et al, 2016).
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