In this study, 38 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers derived from transcriptome sequence of Ruditapes philippinarum were reported. The polymorphisms of these markers were detected in a natural population of R. philippinarum. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 10 with an average of 4.8. The observed and expected heterozygosity per locus ranged from 0.000 to 0.939 and 0.086 to 0.832, with an average of 0.255 and 0.542, respectively. Eighteen loci significantly deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction (P < 0.0013) and two pairwise combinations of four loci (RpT178/RpT146 and RpT200/RpT249) were significant after Bonferroni correction. These loci will provide useful information for the studies on genetic diversity and structure, construction of genetic linkage maps and the effective management of R. philippinarum.

 

Key words: Ruditapes philippinarum, microsatellite, polymorphism, genetic diversity.