Development of 17 novel microsatellite markers for the longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus) and successful cross-specific amplification of 14 previously developed markers from congeneric species

The longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus) is a widely distributed catostomid, found throughout Canada and much of the northern United States. Although it is a species with significant ecological importance, it has been the focus of only a few studies. Here we describe 17 novel microsatellite loci, and the use of 14 previously described markers from congeneric species formerly untested on longnose sucker. Of the 31 described markers, 19 were polymorphic exhibiting between 2 and 20 alleles. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.13 to 0.91, and 0.23 to 0.95 respectively. There was no evidence of null alleles or of deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for any locus, and no locus pairs exhibited evidence of linkage disequilibrium.