Single nucleotide polymorphism markers for genotyping hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata)

Assessing population connectivity and identifying conservation units are critical to formulating effective management plans for marine turtles. We combined a multiplexed targeted enrichment capture technique and high-throughput sequencing to discover single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to genotype hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) to examine population structure. Our approach discovered 455 potential informative SNPs for hawksbill turtles. We optimized 25 of the 455 SNPs discovered and used them to identify preliminary evidence of hawksbill population structure, suggesting that these markers will be informative in discerning conservation units when applied to larger sample sizes in future studies.