ABSTRACT
Microsatellites, or Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), are polymorphic loci that consist of short repeating units of 2-6 bp in length. Microsatellites show an exceptionally high rate of mutations due to the addition or subtraction of a small number of perfect repeats, most likely because of polymerase slippage during replication (Schlötterer and Tautz, 1992). Th ey are typically neutral, co-dominant and are used as molecular markers which have wide-ranging applications in the fi eld of genetics, including kinship and population studies (Jarne, 1996). Nucleotide sequences of the microsatellites themselves used to characterize are normally deposited in GenBank whereas data from applied studies that analyze allele size information of diff erent individuals for several diff erent microsatellite loci are not found in GenBank. Microsatellites have been isolated and characterized for the following gobioid genera: Coryphopterus (Hepburn et al., 2006), Ctenogobiops (Th ompson et al., 2006), Eucyclogobius (Mendonca et al., 2001), Gnatholepis (Th acker et al., 2007), Gobiusculus (Mobley et al., 2009), Leucopsarison (Kokita and Takahashi, 2008), neogobines (e.g. Neogobius, Proterorhinus; Dufour et al., 2007; Vyskočilová et al., 2007; Feldheim et al., 2009), Pomatoschistus (Larmuseau et al., 2008; Mobley et al., 2009), Pterogobius (Nohara et al., 2009), Rhinogobius (Ohara et al., 2004), Sicyopterus (Hoareau et al., 2009), and Zosterisessor (Gallini et al., 2004).
