The transfer of the genomic resources developed in the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, to other Tilapiines sensu lato and African cichlid would provide new possibilities to study this amazing group from genetics, ecology, evolution, aquaculture, and conservation point of view. We tested the cross-species amplification of 32 O. niloticus microsatellite markers in a panel of 15 species from 5 different African cichlid tribes: Oreochromines (Oreochromis, Sarotherodon), Boreotilapiines (Tilapia), Chromidotilapines, Hemichromines, and Haplochromines. Amplification was successfully observed for 29 markers (91%), with a frequency of polymorphic (P95) loci per species around 70%. The mean number of alleles per locus and species was 3.2 but varied from 3.7 within Oreochromis species to 1.6 within the nontilapia species. The high level of cross-species amplification and polymorphism of the microsatellite markers tested in this study provides powerful tools for a wide range of molecular genetic studies within tilapia species as well as for other African cichlids. 1. Introduction African cichlid fish are of extreme interest for both evolutionary biology and applied genetics purposes, including amazing models for speciation, adaptation, behaviour and neurosciences [1–5] as well as groups of major importance for aquaculture and fisheries (strain selection and improvement, stock assessment, etc.) [6–10]. A wide range of structural and functional genomic resources have been developed for cichlids in the past 15 years, predominantly in the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus [11–14]. While genome sequencing projects are in progress for several African cichlids, the transfer of genomic resources from O. niloticus across the entire group of tilapias sensu lato as well as other African cichlid tribes would provide powerful tools to support a wide range of evolutionary biology studies, including comparative phylogenetics, genome mapping, evolution of gene family sequence and expression, candidate gene analyses for adaptation, and population genetics. Microsatellite markers are one of the most interesting resources to transfer across lineages, as they can provide numerous locus-specific molecular markers and putatively homologous sequences across taxa. In addition to their high level of polymorphism, the evolutionary conservation of the flanking region of microsatellite loci allows large-scale heterospecific amplification [15, 16], as previously shown in various animal groups, particularly fish [17–19]. However, the rate of cross-species amplification varies widely
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