Conservation of microsatellite loci across species of artiodactyls: Implications for population studies

DNA microsatellites have proven useful as markers in studies of gene mapping due to their high level of polymorphism and broad genomic distribution. These properties suggest that they also will be useful for studies of population structure. The limiting factor is the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer sets fdr each new species of interest, as this requires the construction and screening of libraries of genomic DNA, DNA sequencing, and design of primers. The locations and sequences of some microsatellites have been shown to be conserved across species of mammals. We tested these markers in an array of closely related species of bovids and cervids. PCR primer pairs designed for bovine, ovine, or caprine microsatellite loci successfully amplified microsatellites in many other species of artiodactyls. When 20 primer sets were tested on 10 species of bovids and six species of cervids, polymorphic products were obtained for seven or more of the 16 species with 12 of the primer pairs. This success in using heterologous PCR primers to amplify microsatellite loci in several different species eliminates the need to develop new sets of primers for each species and therefore facilitates the use of DNA microsatellites as markers in studies of population genetics. The primers tested here form a suite of useful markers for studies of artiodactyls that contains more polymorphic loci than any existing set of allozyme or RFLP loci.