Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the Chinese water snake Enhydris chinensis (Colubridae)

The Chinese water snake Enhydris chinensis is an ovoviviparous colubrid snake distributed in China and Vietnam. It is commonly used in the production of Chinese snake oil, which is known for treating ailments such as fever, joint pain, and headache. It is listed as a vulnerable species according to the China red data book of endangered animals. Specific molecular markers such as mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite loci are helpful for us to get a better understanding of population structure and evolutionary history of the snake and take effective conservation action for this species. Here, we characterize eight polymorphic microsatellite loci isolated from E. chinensis genomic libraries. Forty-seven individuals were collected from Ji’an population in Jiangxi, China. These markers revealed a high degree of genetic diversity (3–10 alleles per locus) and heterozygosity (H _O ranged from 0.532 to 0.957, and H _E ranged from 0.565 to 0.806). No locus exhibited significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium among pairs of loci. The results of this paper will be useful for future study of population structure and genetic diversity of E. chinensis.