Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers in the yellow catfish, Pelteobagrus fulvidraco

Abstract

The yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco) is one of the important economic freshwater fish in China and widely distributed along Yangtze River. In this survey, we have developed eighteen polymorphic dinucleotide microsatellite markers. They were characterized using 36 samples collected from Chishui and Leshan fragment of Yangtze River. Number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 11. Mean observed heterozygosity over all eighteen loci was 0.559 (Chishui population) and 0.848 (Leshan population), respectively. Mean expected heterozygosity was 0.562 (Chishui population) and 0.613 (Leshan population), respectively. These microsatellite markers will be useful in studies of population genetic structure, genome mapping and marker-assisted selection of yellow catfish.