Characterization of novel expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat markers and analysis of genetic diversity in four geographic populations of Thais luteostoma

In this study, the genetic diversity in four geographic populations (Yushan Island, Zhoushan, Wenzhou, and Xiamen) of Thais luteostoma was analyzed using 21 microsatellite loci. The results of this study showed that the alleles obtained from different populations ranged from 2 to 8. The average number of alleles and effective alleles were 4.59 and 3.16, respectively. The observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity values were in the range 0.338-0.372 and 0.452-0.495, respectively. The polymorphism information content ranged from 0.273 to 0.785. We observed a high level of genetic diversity at 9 of the 21 microsatellite markers in these populations. The genetic differentiation indices of the four geographic populations ranged from 0.0312 to 0.0565, showing a medium level of genetic differentiation. The genetic distances among populations ranged from 0.158 to 0.465. The UPGMA tree indicated that the Yushan Island and Zhoushan populations clustered first, and these subsequently clustered with the Wenzhou and Xiamen populations, indicating that the Xiamen shellfish population was least related to the other populations. The information regarding the shellfish population structure obtained in this study would facilitate the genetic breeding and conservation of T. luteostoma.