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Long Repeats in a Huge Genome: Microsatellite Loci in the Grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus

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Abstract

It is commonly believed that both the average length and the frequency of microsatellites correlate with genome size. We have estimated the frequency and the average length for 69 perfect dinucleotide microsatellites in an insect with an exceptionally large genome: Chorthippus biguttulus (Orthoptera, Acrididae). Dinucleotide microsatellites are not more frequent in C. biguttulus, but repeat arrays are 1.4 to 2 times longer than in other insect species. The average repeat number in C. biguttulus lies in the range of higher vertebrates. Natural populations are highly variable. At least 30 alleles per locus were found and the expected heterozygosity is above 0.95 at all three loci studied. In contrast, the observed heterozygosity is much lower (≤0.51), which could be caused by long null alleles.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Eric Petit for his help and advice and to Andrea Ross and Melanie Decker for assistance in the laboratory. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (F.M.) and the Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsprogramm “Chancengleichheit für Frauen in Forschung und Lehre” (J.U.).

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Author notes

  1. Roland Achmann

    Present address: genteQ, Falkenried 88, D-20251, Hamburg, Germany

  2. Sylvia Cremer

    Present address: Department of Population Ecology, Zoological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DK-2100, Denmark

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology II, University of Erlangen, Staudtstrasse 5, Erlangen, D-91058, Germany

    Jana Ustinova, Roland Achmann, Sylvia Cremer & Frieder Mayer

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  1. Jana Ustinova
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Correspondence to Jana Ustinova.

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[Reviewing Editor: Dr. Dmitri Petrov]

Sequence data from this article have been deposited with the EMBL/GenBank databases under accession numbers AY532396–AY532400.

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Ustinova, J., Achmann, R., Cremer, S. et al. Long Repeats in a Huge Genome: Microsatellite Loci in the Grasshopper Chorthippus biguttulus. J Mol Evol 62, 158–167 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-005-0022-6

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