Isolation of microsatellite loci in Akodon azarae (Muridae, Sigmodontinae) and cross-amplification in other Akodontini species

NOELIA S. VERA; MARINA B. CHIAPPERO; JOSÉ PRIOTTO; CRISTINA N. GARDENAL

JOURNAL OF GENETICS

INDIAN ACAD SCIENCES

Año: 2011 vol. 90 p. 25 - 29

0022-1333

Fragmentation of natural habitats is an increasing problem worldwide, having profound consequences on the genetic and demographic structure of natural populations (Mech and Hallett 2000). A representative example of a fragmentation process occurs in central Argentina, an area of approximately 500,000 km2 formerly occupied by prairies, but currently consisting almost exclusively of crops and livestock pastures separated by fencelines, roads and railroads, along which native and introduced weeds grow: the ?border? habitats. Three of the most abundant Sigmodontine species in agroecosystems of central Argentina are Calomys musculinus and Calomys venustus (tribe Phyllotini), and Akodon azarae, pertaining to the tribe Akodontini, the second most important according to the number of species (Reig 1984). Previous studies have established that these species differ in several ecological and behavioural characteristics like habitat use (A. azarae and C. venustus use preferentially borders while C. musculinus inhabits both borders and crop fields; Busch et al. 1997; Mills et al. 1992; Polop and Sabattini 1993), space use (home range size vary by sex and breeding period in A. azarae and C. musculinus, and by population abundance in C. venustus; Priotto and Steinmann 1999; Priotto et al. 2002), mating system (promiscuous/polygynous in C. venustus and A. azarae and promiscuous in C. musculinus; Priotto and Steinmann 1999; Priotto et al. 2002; Steinmann et al. 2009) and competition (A. azarae is competitively dominant over C. musculinus; Busch et al. 2005) On these bases, it is predictable that the species formerly mentioned will perceive landscape fragmentation differentially. Our research interest focuses in comparing the movement and the genetic structure of their populations in agroecosystems, as a model to assess the genetic consequences of fragmentation on the fauna of the region. The development of codominant microsatellite DNA markers is an invaluable tool for studying fine-scale genetic differences. For this purpose  we describe here results of the isolation and characterization of eleven microsatellite loci in A. azarae. We also investigated if the polymorphic primers developed amplify in other species of the tribe Akodontini.