Isolation of microsatellites from two species of scleractinian coral

Microsatellites were isolated from two broadcast-spawning species of scleractinian coral (Platygyra daedalea and Goniastrea favulus) from Australia's Great Barrier Reef. We found 27 microsatellites across both species, although only five loci were polymorphic in each species. Microsatellite loci displayed a wide range of diversity levels with four to 11 alleles per locus (H-O = 0.26-0.91) in P. daedalea and two to seven alleles per locus (H-O = 0.16-0.96) in G. favulus. Most loci showed departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium which may reflect nonrandom mating but may also be related to difficulties associated with coral DNA.