Abstract
We used a microsatellite enriched library to isolate and characterize 12 di-nucleotide microsatellite loci of Caiman crocodilus. Microsatellites were characterized in populations of C. c. crocodilus from Piagaçu-Purus, Amazonas, Brazil and C. c. yacare from Cáceres, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Results of characterization were comparable between the two subspecies, with number of alleles varying from three to 20 and one to 14 per locus in C. c. crocodilus and C. c. yacare, respectively. Observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.088 to 0.816 and 0.115 to 0.833, respectively. Joint paternity exclusion (QC) was >0.999 in both subspecies, and probability of genetic identity varied from 4.631 × 10−13 in C. c. crocodilus to 2.233 × 10−8 in C. c. yacare. All loci are unlinked, and with the exception of three loci in C. c. crocodilus all loci were at Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The characteristics of these loci makes them an excellent tool set for the study of mating systems, and fine-scaled population structuring in the Caiman crocodilus species complex.
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Acknowledgments
The development of the markers was supported by PROCAD-Amazônia—INPA/UNICAMP/UFRGS/CAPES (023/2006) grant to Miriam da Silva, CNPq/PPG7 557090/2005-9 and CNPq/CT-Amazônia 575603/2008-9 grants to IPF, and an NSF HRD-0931659 grant to TH. The authors thank the faculty and RAs of the PROCAD-funded course and Silvia Planas for discussion and technical help. Permission to collect tissue samples was granted by RAN/IBAMA no. 18187-1 and SDS/CEUC. This study forms a portion of a Masters Thesis of DPO at the Genética, Conservação e Biologia Evolutiva graduate program of INPA/UFAM. DPO was supported by a fellowship from CNPq, with fieldwork supported by WCS and Instituto Piagaçu.
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de Oliveira, D.P., Farias, I.P., Marioni, B. et al. Microsatellite markers for mating system and population analyses of the spectacled caiman Caiman crocodilus (Linnaeus 1758). Conservation Genet Resour 2, 181–184 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-010-9221-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-010-9221-6