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The Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis is an important human food source in Asia and causes considerable ecological and economical damage as a recent invader of North America and Europe. Here we report the isolation and characterization of 12 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci for E. sinensis. The number of observed alleles per locus ranged from 7 to 40 and the observed heterozygosity from 0.50 to 0.95. These markers should prove a useful tool to investigate the colonization process and its evolutionary implications.

The freshwater prosobranch snail Potamopyrgus antipodarumis an important model system for studying the maintenance of sexual reproduction in its native New Zealand. Since introduction to the UK in the 1850s, the species has spread throughout Europe and recently the USA. We present the first microsatellites for P. antipodarum. Using two isolation protocols, which are qualitatively compared, we have developed PCR primers for three di- and four trinucleotide microsatellites. All loci proved to be polymorphic, when screened for variability in several UK populations. These markers should be of considerable utility in future population and ecological genetics studies of this species.