Identification of 30 microsatellite markers in Meretrix meretrix and their transferability in Meretrix lamarckii and Meretrix lyrata

30 microsatellite loci of Mereteix meretrix were developed using microsatellite-enhanced genomic library and expressed sequence tags(ESTs).Genetic diversity was analyzed in a population consisting of 30 individuals.8 G-SSRs and 22 EST-SSRs were found to be polymorphic.In these 30 microsatellite loci,a total of 140 alleles were identified,and the number of alleles varied from 3 to 6,with a mean of 4.67 alleles per locus.Polymorphic information content(PIC)ranged from 0.172 to 0.744.The observed heterozygosity(Ho)was from 0.040 to 0.720,while the expected heterozygosity(He)was from 0.187 to 0.793.The mean values of number of alleles,PIC,Ho,and He of G-SSRs were higher than those of the EST-SSRs.24 of the 30 loci deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction.11 EST-SSR identified from annotated genes were expected to be useful for mapping these genes in linkage maps.Interspecific transferability of the 30 markers revealed that 12 and 9 were polymorphic in M.lamarckii and M.lyrata,respectively.These loci obtained will lay a foundation for the study of genetic diversity,germplasm resources evaluation,marker-assisted selection(MAS)and other relevant research in M.meretrix,and these novel polymorphic SSR markers can be used for comparative mapping,gene tagging and QTL mapping among M.meretrix,M.lamarckii and M.lyrata.