Isolation and Characterization of New Microsatellite Markers for the Invasive Softshell Clam, Mya arenaria (L.) (Bivalvia: Myidae)

Abstract

The invasive softshell clam (Mya arenaria Linnaeus, 1758) is native to the northwestern region of the Atlantic Ocean. This species has been introduced in the northeast Pacific and along the European coasts, due to intense naval transports and aquaculture, and it is now present in all the European seas. In this paper we describe seven new microsatellite loci for Mya arenaria. The isolated loci are polymorphic with a number of alleles per locus between 6 and 14. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.417 to 0.951, and from 0.643 to 0.895, with an average of 0.716 and 0.775, respectively. These microsatellite markers should be useful in analyzing this species’ genetic diversity, which could explain various processes of its invasion history.

Horizontal Transmission of Clonal Cancer Cells Causes Leukemia in Soft-Shell Clams

“…To characterize the genotype of the neoplastic cells in more detail, we analyzed ten microsatellite loci in nuclear DNA, previously identified as polymorphic in M. arenaria (Krapal et al, 2012; St-Onge et al, 2013), by PCR. The sizes of these loci were highly polymorphic among individuals, and in many cases the animals were heterozygous at the loci, with PCR products of two sizes (Figure 4).…”

Population Genetic Structure Is Unrelated to Shell Shape, Thickness and Organic Content in European Populations of the Soft-Shell Clam Mya Arenaria

“…All of the samples were genotyped at 12 previously characterized microsatellite loci [25,28]. These were polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified in four separate multiplexed reactions using a Type It Kit (Qiagen) with the following PCR profile: one cycle of 5 min at 95 • C; 30 cycles of 30 s at 94 • C, 90 s at the specified annealing temperature (T a ) and 30 s at 72 • C; and final elongation step of 15 min at 60 • C (see Table S1 for T a ).…”

“…More recently, microsatellite markers have been developed for the soft-shell clam, which, in contrast to the studies described above, have uncovered relatively strong population genetic structure and higher levels of genetic diversity in North America [25,27,28]. One of these studies [27] also generated microsatellite data for four European M. arenaria populations, although these were locally restricted to the Southern coast of Ireland, North Wales and the Netherlands.…”

“…Differences in the energetic cost of producing and maintaining different shell structures and components [46,47] as well as geographical variation in physical and biotic stressors that are likely to exercise a selective pressure on shell morphology, are expected to influence variation in shell microstructural composition and thickness [48,49]. The fact that M. arenaria is widespread and locally abundant, combined with the availability of recently developed microsatellites [25,28], makes this species a good candidate for investigating the relative contributions of genetic and geographical factors towards variation in shell morphological traits. Here, we collected a total of 266 M. arenaria samples from nine locations around the coastline of Europe, spanning a latitudinal cline from Lisbon to St. Andrews (Figure 2).…”