Development and evaluation of microsatellite markers for identification of individual Greenshell™ mussels (Perna canaliculus) in a selective breeding programme

A set of 49 microsatellite loci isolated from the endemic New Zealand Greenshell™ mussel, Perna canaliculus, were evaluated for inclusion in a parentage assignment marker suite by assessing their ease of PCR amplification, allele scoring and conformity to Mendelian inheritance in hatchery-produced families. Ten polymorphic loci (mean H_e = 0.78 and polymorphic information content (PIC) = 0.72) were identified as being suitable for parentage assignment. These 10 microsatellite loci gave a combined non-exclusion probability of < 0.001 (probability that an unrelated parent pair will not be excluded from parentage of an arbitrary offspring), based on allele frequencies from 16 broodstock mussels. Simulations predicted an assignment success rate of 99.9% with all 10 loci and > 95% with the best 5 or more loci (mean PIC = 0.84). In actual parentage assignments, 124 offspring from 8 full-sib families were assigned to the correct parent pair with 4 or more loci. We found evidence for null alleles and extensive size homoplasy in many loci, highlighting the importance of thoroughly characterizing and evaluating microsatellite markers prior to parentage assignment and other applications.