Abstract
Many wild giraffe populations are declining across Africa, with two subspecies listed by the IUCN as Endangered in the past 4 years. We developed 11 microsatellite markers from Giraffa camelopardalis angolensis in Etosha National Park, Namibia using 454 sequencing. In 70 individuals, the loci showed 2–4 alleles per locus and expected heterozygosities of 0.082–0.711. There were no significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium for any of the loci. Null allele frequencies were low (<3 %) across all loci. We present primer options for an additional 458 microsatellites. This new set of microsatellite markers and primer options will benefit conservation, population and quantitative genetics studies of giraffe populations.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Etosha Ecological Institute and the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism especially Shayne Kötting and Dr. Ortwin Aschenborn. We thank Stuart Crawford, the University of California Berkeley, Tom Smith and Brenda Larison for assisting with biopsy logistics and Cynthia Riginos for coordinating the 454 run. This project was funded by Wilderness Wildlife Trust, Australian Geographic Society and Dunlop Tyres Namibia.
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Online Resource 1 Giraffa camelopardalis primer options for an additional 458 microsatellites Supplementary material 1 (XLS 2,926 kb)
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Carter, K.D., Seddon, J.M., Carter, J.K. et al. Development of 11 microsatellite markers for Giraffa camelopardalis through 454 pyrosequencing, with primer options for an additional 458 microsatellites. Conservation Genet Resour 4, 943–945 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-012-9679-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-012-9679-5