Development and characterization of novel microsatellite loci for Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus

The Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus is an eastern Atlantic polygynous species showing male paternal care. In this paper we describe 5 novel microsatellite loci obtained by 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing of a microsatellite-enriched library. The number of alleles per polymorphic locus varied between 2 and 4, and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.082 to 0.600. No significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was found and there was no evidence for linkage disequilibrium. These markers will be of great value for paternity studies and population genetics of this species.