Abstract
Fourteen microsatellites were isolated and characterized from a small-insert genomic DNA library from the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea enriched for dinucleotide microsatellite motifs. We tested primers on 207 leatherbacks sampled from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Primer pairs yielded an average of 5.7 alleles per locus, an average observed heterozygosity of 0.47, and average polymorphic information content of 0.43. Cross species amplification of these markers was performed on the six other extant species of marine turtles: olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), and flatback (Natator depressus) turtles. Eleven of the markers worked in at least one of the species, and seven of these were polymorphic. These leatherback-specific microsatellite markers will facilitate population genetic and ecological studies to aid in the conservation of this divergent species of marine turtle, and provide additional markers for the other species of cheloniids.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by NOAA—National Marine Fisheries Service-Southwest Fisheries Science Center. We would like to thank Lara Asato, Luana Galver, Lauren Hansen, Nicole Hedrick, Amy Jue, Carrie LeDuc, Janet Lowther and Mark Westerman for their technical assistance in the laboratory. We are grateful to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, the West Indies Marine Animal Research and Conservation Service (WIMARCS) and the USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources for facilitating collection of samples.
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Roden, S.E., Dutton, P.H. Isolation and characterization of 14 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and cross-species amplification. Conservation Genet Resour 3, 49–52 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-010-9284-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-010-9284-4