Isolation and characterization of nine polymorphic microsatellite markers in the two‐banded sea bream ( Diplodus vulgaris ) and cross‐species amplification in the white sea bream ( Diplodus sargus ) and the saddled bream ( Oblada melanura )

We have developed nine new microsatellite markers for the two‐banded sea bream ( Diplodus vulgaris ) from an enriched genome library protocol. All these loci are polymorphic, with mean allelic diversity of 13 (range 5 –21), and expected and observed heterozygosities from 0.641 to 0.932 and 0.428 to 0.914, respectively. Cross‐species tests in two close‐related species of the genus Diplodus ( D. sargus and O. melanura ) revealed successful amplifications at 8 out of 9 loci, with mean allele number of 4.75 (range 2–8) and 5.50 (range 3 –10), respectively. These results are consistent with the close phylogenetic relationships between the three species, indicating this set of primers might prove useful for studying the levels of genetic diversity and population differentiation in these three species and in other phylogenetically close species of the genus Diplodus and Sparus .