Isolation and characterization of ten nuclear microsatellite loci for the Portuguese dogfish Centroscymnus coelolepis

The Portuguese dogfish Centroscymnus coelolepis is a deepwater squaloid shark with a wide distribution and is also an important fishing resource in parts of its range. Despite concerns about the species' sustainability, current fisheries management measures have been implemented without a good understanding of the stock structure. The assessment of the population structure of C. coelolepis using molecular markers will provide important information for future management efforts. Here we describe the first attempt at isolating nuclear microsatellite markers for C. coelolepis. Ten polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and screened in 43-45 individuals collected off western Portugal, showing 3-29 alleles per loci (average: 12.5 alleles/locus) and observed heterozygosities ranging from 0.60 to 0.98. None of the markers exhibited genotypic distributions that deviated from HWE expectations, or showed evidence of linkage disequilibrium or the presence of null alleles.