Development and characterization of 24 polymorphic microsatellite markers for bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus

The bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) is a notorious exotic fish, which causes serious damages to freshwater ecosystems in the world. Therefore, it is a matter of urgency to control this species for the conservation of ecosystem. New microsatellite loci were developed for L. macrochirus using high throughput 454 GS-FLX+ pyrosequencing. We selected 24 primer pairs that were tested on 47 individuals from Lake Biwa, which encompasses the oldest and largest population of L. macrochirus in Japan. Allele per locus varied 2-17. Expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.185 to 0.888 and 0.120 to 0.872, respectively. Applied to L. macrochirus in Lake Biwa, these markers could detect genetic differentiation among populations, which showed a pattern of isolation by distance. These markers are expected to be useful in the estimation of population structure and ecology of L. macrochirus.