Development and characterization of twenty-two novel microsatellite markers for the mountain whitefish, Prosopium williamsoni and cross-amplification in the round whitefish, P. cylindraceum, using paired-end Illumina shotgun sequencing

We isolated and characterized a total of 22 microsatellite loci in Prosopium williamsoni. Loci were screened in 24 individuals from across a portion of its range in the Peace River area of northeastern British Columbia. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 19, observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.111 to 0.950, and the probability of identity values ranged from 0.013 to 0.604. These new loci will be used for conducting investigations into the genetic structure and diversity of extant populations of this important forage fish. The loci were also screened in the congener P. cylindraceum, which is of interest as an indicator species in the Great Lakes region of North America; 15 of the 22 loci produced scorable PCR products in the round whitefish.