Isolation and characterization of twenty microsatellite markers for the endangered fish Alburnus chalcoides

Twenty polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from an enriched genomic library of Alburnus chalcoides. The polymorphism of these loci was tested on a population of 15 individuals from the Aral Sea, Uzbekistan. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 3. The observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.2077–0.6720 to 0.1662–0.6837, respectively. One locus (CCA147) deviated from the Hardy–Weinberg expectations (P < 0.05) after Bonferroni correction. The polymorphic information content (PIC) for allelic diversity ranged from 0.12 to 0.8067 with 9 of these 20 loci revealing moderately high information content (PIC > 0.50). These loci will provide insights into species genetic diversity, population structure, and conservation strategy design.