Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2010
The redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) is a freshwater crayfishspecies endemic to northern Australia and Papua New Guinea that is the focus of a growingculture industry in number of regions around the world. Here we isolated and characterized15 microsatellite loci from Cherax quadricarinatus and tested variabilityof the loci in 66 unrelated cultured individuals. Thirteen of 15 microsatellite loci werepolymorphic. Number of alleles per locus ranged from two to seven while observed andexpected heterozygosities ranged from 0.172 to 0.985 and from 0.373 to 0.778,respectively. Eleven loci conformed to Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in the sampledpopulation. These microsatellite loci developed here provide an important resource forstudying genetic diversity and population structure in redclaw crayfish and potentially inother related species.