Exploitation of a turbot (Scophthalmus maximus L.) immune-related expressed sequence tag (EST) database for microsatellite screening and validation

In this study, we identified and characterized 160 microsatellite loci from an expressed sequence tag (EST) database generated from immune-related organs of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). A final set of 83 new polymorphic microsatellites were validated after the analysis of 40 individuals from Atlantic origin including both wild and farmed individuals. The allele number and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 2 to 18 and from 0.021 to 0.951, respectively. Evidences of null alleles at moderate-high frequencies were detected at six loci using population data. None of the analyzed loci showed deviations from Mendelian segregation after analysis of five full-sib families including ~92 individuals/family. The markers are used to consolidate the turbot genetic map and, since they are mostly EST-derived, they will be very useful for comparative genomic studies within flatfishes and with model fish species. Using an in silico approach, we detected significant homologies of microsatellite se...