Microsatellites: genetic markers for the future

Abstract

In the four accompanying reviews of this issue (Carvalho and Hauser, 1994; Ferguson, 1994; Park and Moran, 1994; Ward and Grewe, 1994), the authors have provided a thorough assessment of the molecular basis and utility of various genetic markers currently available to researchers in aquaculture and fisheries research. These reviews emphasize the pre-eminent roles of isozymes and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in fisheries genetic research, with a rather more limited discussion of nuclear DNA markers and technologies. This emphasis is understandable, given the large volume of data and the established technology that prevail for allozymes, and to a lesser, but still significant extent, mtDNA. In this article we look to the future, and in doing so, take a more radical view. Here we argue the merits of a particular class of nuclear markers, variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) loci. VNTRs themselves comprise two (probably related) classes of loci, the minisatellites and microsatellites (Wright, 1993, 1994; Park and Moran, 1994). Our intent in this commentary is to highlight the general utility of microsatellite VNTRs to fisheries and aquaculture research. In expounding our view, we draw primarily on the experience we have gained with microsatellites in the Marine Gene Probe Laboratory (MGPL) at Dalhousie University.

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