Isolation and characterization of 8 novel microsatellites for the black abalone, Haliotis cracherodii, a marine gastropod decimated by the withering disease

The black abalone, Haliotis cracherodii, is an intertidal marine gastropod that used to be extremely abundant before overharvesting and an outbreak of withering syndrome lowered its numbers to, in some sites, few individuals. A set of eight microsatellite markers was developed and tested for polymorphism using 41 individuals from two populations. Loci were highly polymorphic with expected heterozygosities ranging from 0.86 to 0.96, a likely signature of past large population size. These markers will be useful in tracking the fate of such a vulnerable species that is likely to experience a severe bottleneck in the next few generations.