Polymorphic microsatellite markers for the endangered fish, the slender shiner Pseudopungtungia tenuicorpa and cross-species amplification across five related species

Abstract

The slender shiner Pseudopungtungia tenuicorpa (Cypriniformes; Cyprinidae; Gobioninae) is an endangered freshwater fish species endemic to Korea. The current strategies for its conservation involve the study of population genetic characters and identification of management units. These strategies require suitable molecular markers to study genetic diversity and genetic structure. Here, we developed nine polymorphic microsatellite markers for P. tenuicorpa for the first time by applying an enrichment method from a size-selected genomic library. The developed microsatellite markers produced a total of 101 alleles (average 11.2). The observed and expected heterozygosities averaged 0.805 and 0.835, respectively. Among the nine identified markers, five markers showed successful amplification across five related Korean Gobioninae species. Thus, the microsatellite markers developed in this study will be useful to establish conservation strategies for both P. tenuicorpa and other related species.