Identification and evaluation of novel di- and tetranucleotide microsatellite markers from the brown bear (Ursus arctos)

摘要

We here describe 34 novel microsatellite loci from the brown bear (Ursus arctos) identified using a next-generation sequencing approach. While we found allelic variation in 30 of these, we selected 16 polymorphic microsatellites (11 di- and 5 tetranucleotide repeats) for four multiplex-PCR assays based on genetic variability, PCR performance and interpretability. Applying these assays for the 16 novel microsatellites, we screened 31 brown bears from a northern European population. The number of alleles encountered at single loci was between 4 and 10, and expected and observed heterozygosities ranged between 0.66-0.85 and 0.60-0.97, respectively. Seven of 120 pairwise locus combinations showed linkage disequilibrium and one locus deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, while no null-alleles were detected. Our novel multiplex-PCR assays may be useful in forensics, parentage and population genetic studies.