Development and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in the sea cucumber Holothuria leucospilota

Holothuria leucospilota is a tropical holothurian species that is widely distributed in the tropical and sub-tropical India-Western Pacific Region. Eight polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed from H. leucospilota by using the protocol fast isolation by amplified fragment length polymorphism of sequences containing repeats and tested in 30 individuals from Hainan Island in China. The number of alleles was 2-6 and polymorphism information content ranged from 0.371-0.694. The levels of expected and observed heterozygosities varied from 0.3913-0.6701 and from 0.1154-0.7000, respectively. No significant linkage disequilibrium was detected for any pairwise combination of loci. Only loci YZHS1-42 deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. These polymorphic microsatellite loci may be useful for germplasm conservation of H. leucospilota.