Isolation and characterization of twenty microsatellite loci in Japanese sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus)

Twenty microsatellite markers were first developed from the Japanese sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus using an enrichment protocol. Of the 20 microsatellite loci, 19 loci were polymorphic in the population examined. At these polymorphic loci, the number of alleles per locus varied from 2 to 15, and the observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.03 to 0.97, which is considerably higher than those previously found for allozymes. The high variability of the microsatellite markers identified in this study will make them excellent tools for genetic analyses of S. japonicus.