Isolation and Characterization of Polymorphic Microsatellite Loci for Caridina cantonensis and Transferability Across Eight Confamilial Species (Atyidae, Decapoda)

The species is landlocked, and this life history contributes substantially to its strong population differentiation at the very small geographical scale. Given its widespread distribution, it serves as an excellent model for examining population connectivity and phylogeographical history of freshwater invertebrates in South China. This study isolated ten microsatellite loci from genome sequences of C. cantonensis and four from the transcriptome assemblies of Neocaridina davidi. The microsatellites were then characterized in 24 C. cantonensis individuals from one population. The number of alleles ranged from seven to 18. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.050 to 0.958 (averaged 0.649) and 0.754 to 0.919 (averaged 0.833), respectively. We also assessed the cross-species transferability of the markers developed across eight confamilial species. On average, nine markers can be amplified in each species, and five markers can be amplified across all eight species. The markers developed in this study would enable evaluation of genetic diversity and population structure of these species for conservation management planning.