title: Construction of a microsatellites-based linkage map for the white grouper (Epinephelus aeneus).
abstract: The white grouper (Epinephelus aeneus) is a promising candidate for domestication and aquaculture due to its fast growth, excellent taste, and high market price. A linkage map is an essential framework for mapping quantitative trait loci for economic traits and the study of genome evolution. DNA of a single individual was deep-sequenced, and microsatellite markers were identified in 177 of the largest scaffolds of the sequence assembly. The success rate of developing polymorphic homologous markers was 94.9% compared with 63.1% of heterologous markers from other grouper species. Of the 12 adult mature fish present in the broodstock tank, two males and two females were identified as parents of the assigned offspring by parenthood analysis using 34 heterologous markers. A single full-sib family of 48 individuals was established for the construction of first-generation linkage maps based on genotyping data of 222 microsatellites. The markers were assigned to 24 linkage groups in accordance to the 24 chromosomal pairs. The female and male maps consisting of 203 and 202 markers spanned 1053 and 886 cM, with an average intermarker distance of 5.8 and 5.0 cM, respectively. Mapping of markers to linkage groups ends was enriched by using markers originating from scaffolds harboring telomeric repeat-containing RNA. Comparative mapping showed high synteny relationships among the white grouper, kelp grouper (E. bruneus), orange-spotted grouper (E. coioides), and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus). Thus, it would be useful to integrate the markers that were developed for different groupers, depending on sharing of sequence data, into a comprehensive consensus map.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dor
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shirak
authors.affiliation: National Center for Mariculture, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, Eilat 88112, Israel.
authors.forename: Sergei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gorshkov
authors.affiliation: The Carver Biotechnology Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Band
authors.affiliation: University Haifa, Institute of Evolution, of Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Korol
authors.affiliation: University Haifa, Institute of Evolution, of Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Yefim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ronin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
authors.forename: Arie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curzon
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
authors.forename: Gideon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hulata
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seroussi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel micha.ron@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Micha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ron
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D005838:Genotype; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D010473:Perciformes / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D026801:Synteny
keywords: Comparative mapping; Epinephelus aeneus; Linkage map; Microsatellite markers