CORRELATION BETWEEN FIVE MICROSATELLITE MARKERS AND FOUR GROWTH TRAITS IN PTERIA PENGUIN

The winged pearl oyster, Pteria penguin, is a widely distributed large pearl oyster species, which can produce large-sized mabé (half-pearl), and exhibit strong tolerance to severe environment. However, genetic improvement of P. penguin was still in its infancy. In this study, the correlation between five microsatellite loci and four growth traits (shell height, shell length, shell width and total weight) of 500 winged pearl oysters were analyzed by One-way ANOVA. Multiple comparisons between different genotypes of microsatellite markers and growth traits were performed. It was shown that the 5 loci in this study are all highly polymorphic loci, among which, QEB-D15 and CL-232 were extremely significantly associated with the shell width of the winged pearl oyster (P<0.01). The individuals with genotype 239/263 and 239/273 at QEB-D15 had the maximum and the minimum shell width, respectively. The 263 bp allele might positively correlate with the shell width, while the 273 bp allele might negatively correlate with the shell width. The average values of shell length, shell width and total weight of individuals with genotype 157/174 at locus CL-232 were larger than that of other genotypes, suggested that this genotype was the dominant genotype. Individuals with genotype of 177/192 at locus CL-232 had the smallest shell length, shell width, shell height and total weight, indicated that the 177/192 may be an inferior genotype. In addition, the shell width is correlated with two SSR loci, which indicates that the shell width is a phenotypic trait that may not be controlled by a single gene. This study could provide valuable information for molecular marker-assisted selection of P. penguin.