This study shows that sampling maternal DNA from hatched and abandoned eggshells
is a viable noninvasive strategy for studying the genetics of rare or endangered
tropical birds, as exemplified here by the Brazilian Merganser (Mergus
octosetaceus). Eighteen microsatellites were isolated from enriched
libraries and nine heterologous loci from related species were tested. Seven
loci were amplified successfully, with five of them being polymorphic. These
loci exhibited amplicons ranging from 110 to 254 bp for 132 samples, with 60
from eggshells and 72 from blood or muscle samples. The number of alleles for
M. octosetaceus ranged from one to six (mean = 3.71), which
is low compared to M. merganser (1-15 alleles), a ‘least
concern’ species. Genetic diversity did not differ significantly between
noninvasive and invasive samples (Z(u) = 0.31, p = 0.37). Thus,
noninvasive sampling, as demonstrated here with eggshells, provides an efficient
means to assess genetic diversity in tropical birds without the need to capture
and handle them.
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