Characterization of eight microsatellite loci in Sea Otter, Enhydra lutris, and cross-species amplification in other Mustelidae

• Published in: Conservation genetics Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 775 - 777
• Main Authors: Kretschmer, Eric J, Olsen, Jeffrey B, Wenburg, John K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01-06-2009; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Genetics and Genomics; Aquatic mammals; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Gene loci; Genetic markers; Life Sciences; Marine mammals; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Population genetics; Technical Note; Keystone species; Inbreeding depression; Microsatellites; Sea otter; .
• ISSN: 1566-0621; 1572-9737
• DOI: 10.1007/s10592-008-9660-8

Herein we describe the development of eight microsatellite markers for the northern sea otter, Enhydra lutris kenyoni. A total of 45 primer pairs were developed and screened from enriched AAAT, CATC, TACA, and TAGA libraries derived from genomic DNA of E. lutris kenyoni. Of these, eight amplified successfully. The average observed heterozygosity, expected heterozygosity, and number of alleles per locus was 0.506, 0.537, and 3.4, respectively. These eight loci were tested across three additional genra; Vulpes lagopus, Martes americana, and Mustela nivalis. Based on the success of our results these loci will be useful for future studies across all sub-species of E. lutris.