Heterologous amplification and diversity of microsatellite loci in three owl monkey species (Aotus azarai, A. lemurinus, A. nancymaae)

Abstract

Genetic support for behavioral studies of primate social systems is fundamental in order to assess reproductive success of individuals. Molecular markers such as microsatellites have found broad application in population genetics as well as conservation assessments and serve as a powerful tool for paternity analysis (Bruford and Wayne 1993). The effort required to characterize highly polymorphic microsatellite loci may be reduced if primers developed for the human genome may be utilized for non-human primates through crossspecies amplification (Moore et al. 1991; Coote and Bruford 1996; Morin et al. 1997, 1998). Only a limited number of New World monkey microsatellite primers have been reported to successfully amplify owl monkey DNA. Twenty polymorphic microsatellite loci were characterized in three species of owl monkeys (Aotus azarai, A. lemurinus, A. nancymaae) for use in parentage analysis from human and New World monkey genomes. Genetic variation across the three species and within a subset of a wild population of A. azarai has been examined...