Eighteen Microsatellite Loci for The Crown-of-Thorns Starfish, Acanthaster Planci

Eighteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed for the crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci, using 454 sequencing of microsatellite enriched genomic libraries. The 18 loci were characterized in 25 individuals from the Indonesian archipelago. We found a mean of 5.9 alleles per locus and observed levels of heterozygosity ranged from 0.120 to 0.958. Three loci significantly deviated from Hardy–Weinberg expectations and no pairs of loci showed significant evidence of linkage disequilibrium. Conservation Genet Resour ISSN 1877-7252