Characterisation of 22 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the Broadbill Swordfish, Xiphias gladius

The Broadbill Swordfish is harvested by fisheries throughout the world. In order to devise more effective management strategies, we need a clear understanding of the population structure of the species. From a library of 29 tetranucleotide repeats, 22 microsatellite markers were characterised for 94 swordfish samples captured from eastern and western Australia. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 26 and observed heterozygosity from 0.066 to 0.923. We have identified 18 microsatellites that will be valuable in the examination of swordfish population structure.