Microsatellites are widely used to investigate connectivity and parentage in marine organisms. Despite surgeonfish (Acanthuridae) being dominant members of most reef fish assemblages and having an ecological key role in coral reef ecosystems, there is limited information describing the scale at which populations are connected and very few microsatellite markers have been screened. Here, we developed fourteen microsatellite markers for the convict surgeonfish Acanthurus triostegus with the aim to infer its genetic connectivity throughout its distribution range. Genetic diversity and variability was tested over 152 fishes sampled from four locations across the Indo-Pacific: Mayotte (Western Indian Ocean), Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia (Southwestern Pacific Ocean), and Moorea (French Polynesia). Over all locations, the number of alleles per locus varied from 5 to 24 per locus, and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.468 to 0.941. Significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium were detected for two loci in two to three locations and were attributed to the presence of null alleles. These markers revealed for the first time a strong and significant distinctiveness between Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean A. triostegus populations. We further conducted cross-species amplification tests in 13 Pacific congener species to investigate the possible use of these microsatellites in other Acanthuridae species. The phylogenetic placement of A. triostegus branching off from the clade containing nearly all Acanthurus + Ctenochaetus species likely explain the rather good transferability of these microsatellite markers towards other Acanthuridae species. This suggests that this fourteen new microsatellite loci will be helpful tools not only for inferring population structure of various surgeonfish but also to clarify systematic relationships among Acanthuridae.

微卫星被广泛用于研究海洋生物的连通性和亲子关系。尽管刺尾鱼（Acanthuridae）是大多数珊瑚礁鱼类组合的主要成员，并且在珊瑚礁生态系统中具有生态关键作用，但是描述种群连接规模的信息有限，而且筛选的微卫星标记很少。在这里，我们为定罪的刺尾鱼棘刺鱼（Acanthurus triostegus）开发了十四种微卫星标记目的是推断其在整个分布范围内的遗传连通性。遗传多样性和变异性从印度太平洋的四个地点取样的152条鱼中进行了测试：马约特岛（西印度洋），巴布亚新几内亚和新喀里多尼亚（西南太平洋）和莫雷阿岛（法属波利尼西亚）。在所有位置上，每个基因座的等位基因数量从每个基因座5到24不等，预期杂合度在0.468到0.941之间。在两个到三个位置中的两个基因座检测到与Hardy-Weinberg平衡的显着偏离，并且归因于无效等位基因的存在。这些标记首次揭示了印度洋和太平洋A. triostegus之间的强烈而显着的区别。人口。我们进一步在13个太平洋同类物种中进行了跨物种扩增测试，以研究这些微卫星在其他棘齿ida科物种中的可能用途。的系统发育位置A. triostegus从包含几乎所有的进化分叉刺尾 +  Ctenochaetus种可能的解释对其他物种的刺尾鲷科，这些微卫星标记的相当良好的转印。这表明，这十四个新的微卫星基因座将不仅是推断各种刺尾鱼种群结构的有用工具，而且还可以阐明棘齿ida科之间的系统关系。