Isolation and characterization of 16 microsatellite loci from transcriptome-derived sequences of the topmouth culter (Culter alburnus Basilewsky)

The topmouth culter (Culter alburnus) is at the top of the food chain and plays an important role in the maintenance of freshwater ecosystem stability. It is also a commercially important aquaculture fish species in China. To establish conservation strategies and breeding programs, a total of 16 polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from transcriptome-derived sequences of C. alburnus. Characterization of these loci was assessed against 1 wild and 3 cultured populations in Huzhou, China. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 10 with an average of 5.25. A bottleneck effect was observed in all 4 populations; The ChangXing population showed moderate genetic differentiation when compared with other populations (FST values, 0.0695–0.0788). The microsatellite loci would be useful for further studies on population genetic diversity, genetic structure, and assessments of the artificial propagation release effect of C. alburnus.