The aim is to study the genomic characteristics and evaluate the candidate microsatellites(or simple sequence repeat, SSR)isolated via a genomic survey for genetic linkage mapping of Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis.In this study, a set of 60 candidate tri-nucleotide microsatellite markers were randomly selected.Their validation and polymorphism were investigated in an F₁ family of mitten crab using the genomic DNA of the parents and 6 offspring, and the segregation patterns and linkage relationship of polymorphic loci were subsequently investigated in 80 F₁ individuals.The results are as follows:Forty-two primer sets(70.00%)successfully yielded amplicons.The number of alleles per locus of the family varied from 1 to 4, and the number of alleles for each individual per locus was 1 or 2.In the 42 SSRs, 5 SSRs were mono-morphism and 37 SSRs were polymorphism.In the 37 polymorphic loci analysed using the F₁ family, twenty-three loci exhibited a segregation ratio of 1:1:1:1, eleven loci exhibited a segregation ratio of 1:1, and three loci exhibited a segregation of 1:2:1.Polymorphism analysis showed that 35(94.59%)SSRs consisted with Mendelian segregation ratio, while the other 2(5.41%)SSRs(scaffold430598_213690 and scaffold21303_16865)deviated from the expected Mendelian segregation pattern.Linkage analysis showed that scaffold240262_150253, scaffold216209_138892 and scaffold293154_172768 had linkage relationship, scaffold285640_16972 and scaffold427534_212914 had linkage relationship, and so had scaffold507500_231891 and scaffold92860_68250.The results suggest that the Chinese mitten crab were diploid and its genetic linkage map could be constructed using the candidate SSRs and an F₁ family.