Polymorphic analysis of microsatellite DNA in wild populations of Chinese shrimp (Fenneropenaeus chinensis)

Primers were designed for eight microsatellite loci from Chinese shrimp Fenneropenaeus chinensis. Microsatellites were used to characterize three wild populations from the China coast of the Yellow and Bohai Seas (HB), and the west coast (KX) and south coast of the Korean Peninsula (KN). A total of sixty‐one alleles were obtained, and the average observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.660 to 0.756. Six of the 24 population‐locus cases showed a significant departure from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, three of them from population KN, two from KX and one from HB. The F_st values indicated that genetic variation was greater within populations than between populations. Analysis using unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean showed that the relationship between populations HB and KX was closer than between KN and the other two populations. Polymorphic information contents of the eight microsatellites ranged from 0.598 to 0.918. These results indicated that all eight microsatellite loci would be useful for the analysis of genetic variation in Chinese shrimp (F. chinensis) populations.