Isolation and characterization of 12 microsatellites for the commercially important sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria

Sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria, are long-lived, highly migratory, bathydemersal, commercially important fishes that inhabit continental slope waters of the North Pacific Ocean. Here we describe 12 microsatellite loci developed for sablefish, and cross-species amplification in skilfish, Erilepis zonifer. Microsatellites were developed from one sablefish and characterized using 55 juveniles collected in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. The number of alleles ranged from 3 to 27 per locus, and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.074 to 0.964. There was no significant evidence for linkage disequilibrium or departure from Hardy?CWeinberg Equilibrium. Ten of the 12 microsatellite loci were successfully amplified in skilfish. These new microsatellites were developed for use in sablefish fishery management and conservation applications including selecting broodstock for aquaculture operations and defining population boundaries for stock assessments.