Isolation and characterization of 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the smooth Cherax cainii and hairy marron C-tenuimanus (Decapoda: Parastacidae)

Numbers of the critically endangered hairy marron Cherex tenuimanus are declining rapidly in its natural habitat, mainly due to competition with smooth marron C. cainii. To determine whether genetic introgression is occurring between the two species we isolated 13 new polymorphic microsatellite markers from C. cainii using 454 shotgun sequencing. The loci were screened for variation in 20 individuals of C. cainii and eight individuals of C. tenuimanus. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium between pairs of loci and only one locus deviated significantly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 11 across both species.