Isolation and characterization of 17 polymorphic microsatellites in the brown mud mussel Glauconome rugosa

The brown mud mussel Glauconome rugosa is a delicious mussel food species. Due to over-harvesting for food in the wild, some populations may be endangered. Seventeen di- and tetranucleotide microsatellites were isolated and characterized using 24 wild caught individuals. The average allele number of the 17 microsatellites was 8/locus with a range of 5-14, and the expected heterozygosity averaged at 0.80, ranging from 0.65 to 0.91. Eleven out of 17 microsatellites agreed with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and showed independent segregation. Extreme size difference (over 50 bp) between alleles was seen at five of the 17 loci. These microsatellites will facilitate the studying of the genetic diversity and population structure of wild populations of G. rugosa.