Characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the Japanese endangered land snail Mandarina

Mandarina is an endangered land snail genus of the oceanic Ogasawara archipelago. On Chichijima Island, the largest inhabited island in Ogasawara, this genus is almost extinct in the wild due to predation by invasive species. Although ex situ conservation programs started in 2010, genetic diversity and population structure remain unclear due to a lack of genetic markers with sufficient genetic variation. In this study, we designed polymorphic microsatellite markers of Mandarina to enable genetic analysis and to develop appropriate conservation plans.

Twenty-three polymorphic microsatellite markers were identified from the genomic DNA of wild samples of Mandarina mandarina. We assessed the genetic diversity of each marker. In 16 markers, neither linkage disequilibrium nor deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was detected. These 16 markers were tested for multiplex PCR using low-density DNA extracted non-lethally from captive samples of M. mandarina, M. chichijimana and M. suenoae. Of the 16 markers, 15, 12 and 9 were usable for multiplex PCR, respectively. Genetic analysis using these microsatellite loci will be an important resource for the conservation of Mandarina.