Isolation of 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci for slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus)

Our research on slimy sculpins (Cottus cognatus), a benthic, freshwater fish, requires highly polymorphic genetic markers, and microsatellite loci developed for other Cottus species were insufficient for our needs. We therefore developed 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci from C. cognatus libraries enriched for tri- and tetranucleotide repeats. These loci had 2–22 alleles and observed heterozygosities ranging from 0.36 to 0.86 in a sample of 47 individuals from one population. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium; however, one locus had a putative null allele. Twelve loci also worked for mottled sculpin (Cottus bairdi) but only eight were polymorphic in a sample of seven individuals.