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Vol. 54, 2015
Establishment of a microsatellite set for noninvasive
paternity testing in free-ranging Macaca
mulatta tcheliensis in Mount Taihangshan area, Jiyuan, China
Bai-Shi Wang1,
Zhen-Long Wang2,
Jun-Dong Tian1,2,
Zhen-Wei Cui1,
and Ji-Qi Lu1,*
1Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology, Zhengzhou University, Kexue Dadao 100, Zhengzhou 450001, PR China
2Current
address: Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and
Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, Berlin 10315, Germany
Abstract
Background: Within multi-male and
multi-female mammalian societies, paternity assignment is crucial for
evaluating male reproductive success, dominance hierarchy, and
inbreeding avoidance. It is, however, difficult to determine paternity
because of female promiscuity during reproduction. Noninvasive
molecular techniques (e.g., fecal DNA) make it possible to match the
genetic father to his offspring. In the current study, a troop of
free-ranging Taihangshan macaques (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis) in Mt.
Taihangshan area, Jiyuan, China, was selected for studying the
paternity. We successfully screened a set of microsatellite loci from
fecal DNA and evaluated the efficiency of these loci for paternity
testing using clearly recorded data of maternity.
Results: The results showed that: 1) ten loci out
of 18 candidate microsatellite loci were amplified successfully in the
fecal samples of Taihangshan macaques. The error probability in
maternity assignments and paternity testing was very low as indicated
by their power of discrimination (0.70 to 0.95), power of exclusion
(0.43 to 0.84), and the values of polymorphic information content
ranging from 0.52 to 0.82; 2) the combined probability of exclusion in
paternity testing for ten qualified loci was as high as 99.999%, and
the combined probability of exclusion reached 99.99% when the seven
most polymorphic loci were adopted; 3) the offspring were assigned to
their biological mother correctly and also matched with their genetic
father.
Conclusions: We concluded that the
ten polymorphic microsatellite loci, especially a core set of seven
most polymorphic loci, provided an effective and reliable tool for
noninvasive paternity testing in free-ranging rhesus macaques.
Key words:
Rhesus macaque; Microsatellite loci; Noninvasive; Fecal DNA; Paternity
testing; Maternity.
*Correspondence: E-mail: lujq@zzu.edu.cn
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