Abstract
The blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) is distributed throughout southern and east Africa while the black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) is endemic to South Africa and was driven to near extinction in the early 1900s due to hunting pressure and disease outbreaks. Extensive translocation of both species throughout South Africa is threatening the genetic integrity of blue and black wildebeest. To effectively manage these species, genetic tools that can be used to detect hybrid individuals, identify genetically unique subpopulations and determine the levels of genetic diversity are required. In this study, 11 microsatellite markers were developed for wildebeest through next-generation sequencing. The microsatellite loci displayed 2.00–4.14 alleles, unbiased heterozygosity values ranged from 0.32 to 0.60 and observed heterozygosity values ranged from 0.26 to 0.52. The comparatively high level of polymorphism observed in the microsatellite markers indicates that these markers can contribute significantly to our knowledge of population genetic structure, relatedness, genetic diversity and hybridization in these species.
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Acknowledgements
We express our sincere gratitude to South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the International Foundation of Science (IFS), IFS Research grant no. B/4611 for providing funding for the marker development. We also thank SANParks, SA Lombard Nature Reserve and the Free State DESTEA for providing samples. Sonia Kropff provided technical assistance with the screening of samples.
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Van Wyk, A.M., Kotzé, A., Grobler, J.P. et al. Isolation and characterization of species-specific microsatellite markers for blue and black wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus and C. gnou). J Genet 97 (Suppl 1), 101–109 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-018-1000-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12041-018-1000-2