Isolation and characterization of 14 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and cross-species amplification

Fourteen microsatellites were isolated and characterized from a small-insert genomic DNA library from the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea enriched for dinucleotide microsatellite motifs. We tested primers on 207 leatherbacks sampled from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Primer pairs yielded an average of 5.7 alleles per locus, an average observed heterozygosity of 0.47, and average polymorphic information content of 0.43. Cross species amplification of these markers was performed on the six other extant species of marine turtles: olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta), green (Chelonia mydas), and flatback (Natator depressus) turtles. Eleven of the markers worked in at least one of the species, and seven of these were polymorphic. These leatherback-specific microsatellite markers will facilitate population genetic and ecological studies to aid in the conservation of this divergent species of marine turtle, and provide additional markers for the other species of cheloniids.