Abstract
More than 30% of extant shark species are classified as threatened with
extinction, yet reliable population-level data is often rare, frequently
due to a lack of genomic resources. Here we present a new genome-wide
marker set for endangered shark species. We developed a target gene
capture bait set based on the transcriptome and genome of a Lamnid
shark, and tested it on 36 shark specimens, representing seven species
from three orders. Illumina read mapping and calling of Single
Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) showed high target recovery rates,
especially in the order Lamniformes, providing several thousand detected
biallelic SNPs in each species tested. Our results show this marker set
can be used for SNP-calling in a broad range of shark species, enabling
detailed population assessments and other ecological and evolutionary
studies.