%0 Journal Article
%T Cross-species amplification of 36 cyprinid microsatellite loci in Phoxinus phoxinus (L.) and Scardinius erythrophthalmus (L.)
%A Johannes Holmen
%A Leif A V£¿llestad
%A Kjetill S Jakobsen
%A Craig R Primmer
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-2-248
%X We tested 36 cyprinid microsatellite loci for cross-species amplification in minnow and rudd. Fifteen species-locus combinations produced amplifications in minnow, seven being polymorphic, while 18 combinations amplified in rudd, nine of these being polymorphic.The positive cross-species amplifications present potential contributions to the establishment of genetic marker sets for population genetics studies of the two focal species.Microsatellites are widely used for population genetics purposes, especially when the scope of the study involves comparing closely related individuals. This is mainly due to their high mutation rates and to the potential of acquiring large amounts of data through relatively labour-thrifty multi-marker panel runs on capillary electrophoresis sequencers. However, utilization of microsatellites demands knowledge about their flanking sequences generated through library construction and/or PCR cloning approaches [1] to construct adequately sized annealing primer pairs. The flanking regions of microsatellites usually mutate at a much slower rate than the microsatellites themselves and will in many cases be identical across a species' range of distribution. They may even be conserved well enough through evolution to serve as primer templates for closely related species (see e.g. [2-4]).The diverse family Cyprinidae, the most species-rich family of all vertebrates, has been paid only limited attention in population genetics studies. In the few studies available, the primary focus has been on a few species that have shared the status of being either commercially important or popular game fish; exemplified by studies on common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) [5-7], goldfish (Carassius auratus L.) [8], European chub (Leuciscus cephalus L.) [9] and the genetic model species zebrafish (Danio rerio Hamilton) [10]. Therefore, for the great majority of cyprinids genetic markers are unavailable. In an earlier study, Holmen et al. [4] established a platform fo
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/2/248