Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

This paper reports on isolation and characterization of 8 microsatellite loci from a partial genomic library of Macrobrachium rosenbergii using DIG labeled dinucleotides, (GT)15 and (CT)15 as probes. Primers were designed and PCR conditions optimized for repeat arrays. Polymorphism was studied using 24 individuals collected from the wild. All the loci were polymorphic with number of alleles ranging from 3 to 5 and observed heterozygosity 0.50–0.85. All the loci except one were in agreement with Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. No significant pair wise linkage disequilibrium was found among the loci. These markers should prove useful for characterization of natural population as well as brood stock management of this species.