Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci from a dinucleotide-enriched genomic library of starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) and cross-species amplification

Starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) is a rare fish species in China. Here, we reported 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci isolated from a dinucleotide-enriched genomic library of starry flounder (P. stellatus). The number of alleles, observed and expected heterozygosity per locus in 30 individuals ranged from two to six, from 0.2500 to 1.0000 and from 0.4512 to 0.7667, respectively. One locus significantly deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction and no significant linkage disequilibrium between pairs of loci was found. Cross-species amplification of these microsatellite loci in additional three fish species was performed. These polymorphic microsatellite loci would be useful for investigating genetic population structure and construction of genetic linkage map in P. stellatus. Guidong Miao and Changwei Shao have contributed equally.