Parentage determination of the mud crab Scylla paramamosain using microsatellite markers

This study evaluated the properties of nine Scylla paramamosain microsatellite loci screened by us previously for inclusion in a parentage assignment marker suite. These nine highly polymorphic markers (mean He=0.847 and PIC=0.830) were determined as being suitable for parentage assignment. Simulations based on allele frequency data from 15 known maternal families (165 individuals) demonstrated that at least four loci were required to assign >95% of offspring to maternal parents with 95% confidence. In actual parentage assignments, all progenies were assigned to the maternal parents with six or more loci, which was similar to the simulation predictions. Our results suggest that this set of microsatellites provide a powerful and efficient tool for identifying pedigree information for selective breeding programmes of S.paramamosain.