Isolation, via 454 sequencing, characterisation and transferability of twelve microsatellite loci for Hydrophis spiralis, the yellow sea snake (Serpentes: Elapidae)

Abstract

We isolated twelve new polymorphic microsatellite markers from the viviparous sea snake Hydrophis spiralis (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae) from West Java, Indonesia. Initially, 454 shotgun sequencing (GS-FLX) was used to identify 555 loci. Of these we trialled 30 loci in 2 target species, H. cyanocinctus and H. coggeri (closely related to H. spiralis), and 24 (80 %) amplified a product of expected size. We subsequently screened these loci for cross-amplification and polymorphism in 41 individuals of 4 species (H. cyanocinctus, H. coggeri, H. melanocephalus and H. parviceps). Twelve loci were polymorphic with observed within-species heterozygosity ranging from 0 to 1 (mean 0.48), and the number of alleles per locus per species ranging from 1 to 9 (average of 3.4). These loci will be useful in studies of sea snake conservation genetics and speciation dynamics.