Abstract
Background: The striped field mouse, Apodemus agrarius, is the most common mammal in Korea. Although microsatellite loci for the species have been identified from populations in southwestern China, amplification of those markers for Korean populations have been unsuccessful. The complicated taxonomy of Korean striped field mouse including populations on Jeju Island (A. a chejuensis) necessitates identification of additional molecular markers.
Findings: We applied 454 pyrosequencing systems to develop a suite of microsatellite markers. Muscle tissue was harvested and sequenced from 30 Jeju striped field mouse specimens which yielded 12,165 reads with a mean length per read of 287 bp. From these reads, we identified 17 microsatellite loci for A. a. chejuensis and tested these new markers against samples of both A. a chejuensis and A. a coreae, the mainland taxon. All 17 loci were amplified successfully for both taxa. Of the total 17 loci, one locus failed to amplify for a population on Heuksan Island. The cross-species transferability was also tested with the allied taxon, A. peninsulae and confirmed successful for 12 loci.
Conclusions: These newly developed markers will benefit studies of genetic structure, evolution, and resolving taxonomic problems of striped field mice and allied taxa in Korea.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 30 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Hereditas |
| Volume | 155 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was supported by a grant (NIBR201403201) from the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR), funded by the Ministry of Environment (MOE), Republic of Korea. Also, NIBR supported field collections of this study as a part of Wildlife Survey (NIBR20182401). We also thank Drs J. Baccus, P. Schlichting, M. Forstner, anonymous reviewers with the editors Y. Shi and S. Baumgartner for valuable suggestions and comments.
Funding Information:
Genetic works were supported by a grant (NIBR201403201) and field collection was supported by Wildlife Survey (NIBR20182401).
Keywords
- Apodemus agrarius chejuensis, Microsatellites, South Korea, Jeju Island, Pyrosequencing