Development and characterization of nine polymorphic microsatellite markers for the deep-sea scleractinian coral Deltocyathus magnificus using paired-end Illumina shotgun sequencing.

Deltocyathus magnificus is an azooxanthellae deep-sea scleractinian coral species that is distributed in the Indo-Pacific region. In order to investigate its genetic structure and connectivity, polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated and tested on 37 individuals collected from the South China Sea. Twenty loci were selected and primers synthesized for further PCR testing. Nine of 20 were amplified successfully with polymorphism markers. The number of alleles detected in each locus ranged from 2 to 13. The expected and observed heterozygosities of these loci were 0.053-0.819 and 0.054-0.946, respectively. These nine novel polymorphic loci were used to reveal the genetic connectivity pattern among depths and geographic locations in the South China Sea.