Isolation and characterization of 12 polymorphic tetranucleotide microsatellite loci in the apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea)

Abstract

The apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea) is an Australian endemic passerine belonging to the Corcoracidae family. The species is highly gregarious throughout the year and the name of the species refers to the apparent prevalence of social groups of around 12 birds. The species is becoming a model system for the study of sociality in vertebrates, which will require the analysis of relatedness, paternity and maternity. We characterize 12 microsatellite loci tested for polymorphism on 25 individuals from a population in western New South Wales, Australia. The number of alleles ranged from 4 to 9 per locus. Expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.69 to 0.88. This microsatellite panel will facilitate future studies that will advance our understanding of dispersal processes, inbreeding avoidance and reproductive skew in social animals.Apostlebirds are one of the most highly social of all vertebrates, with individuals occurring together throughout the year in groups of 3-20 birds and characterised by a high level of vocal communication and social interaction (Chapman 1998). The species breeds cooperatively with a primary pair being assisted by a number of subordinate and non-breeding adults to raise their young (Woxwold 2004;Woxwold et al. 2006a). The species readily habituates to human presence and the mud nests in which they breed are built in very open sites making them particular suitable for intensive behavioural study (e.g. Griesser et al. 2009). As such the apostlebird provides an excellent model system for the detailed study of questions that are of critical importance to our understanding of the evolution of sociality in vertebrates. The decisions in life that individuals make with respect to dispersal, helping behaviour, pairing and breeding will be affected by an individual's ability to assess its level of genetic kinship with other individuals in the local society. The apostlebird is apparently highly sedentary (Woxwold et al. 2006b) which also raises issues of potential inbreeding and fine-scale genetic structuring of populations, and our study of these will provide a greater understanding of population dynamic processes in general.Whilst some work has recently been published on finescale population genetic structure,breeding behaviour and the mating system of this species (Woxwold et al. 2006a, b), the microsatellite markers available for the earlier study were not isolated for this species specifically and did not permit a thorough resolution of genetic structure and in particular the exact level of relatedness between different individuals within a social group. It was therefore necessary to isolate and characterise this new set of markers directly from the species. This new set of markers will provide the power to allow us to resolve with precision the genetic relationships between the members of a group and structuring between the [30 groups present throughout our study. In addition, the only other species in the Corcoracidae, the white-winged chough Corcorax melanorhamphos,

Genetic monogamy despite variable ecological conditions and social environment in the cooperatively breeding apostlebird

“…); Sci2 , Sci4 , Sci7 , Sci8 , Sci9 , Sci10 , Sci11 , Sci12 , Sci13 , Sci14 , Sci16, and Sci17 (Rollins et al. ) and seven new markers, Sci18 , Sci19 , Sci21 , Sci22 , Sci26 , Sci30, and Sci35 that were developed for this study (Table ). The latter were developed using next‐generation sequence data produced on the GS‐FLX 454 platform (Roche, Germany) following methods described by Abdelkrim et al.…”

“…DNA was extracted with a GentraPureGene DNA (Qiagen) extraction kit according to manufacturer's instructions. We amplified 20 species-specific microsatellite loci including Sci1 (Woxvold et al 2006 ); Sci2 , Sci4 , Sci7 , Sci8 , Sci9 , Sci10 , Sci11 , Sci12 , Sci13 , Sci14 , Sci16, and Sci17 (Rollins et al 2010 ) and seven new markers, Sci18 , Sci19 , Sci21 , Sci22 , Sci26 , Sci30, and Sci35 that were developed for this study (Table 2 ). The latter were developed using next-generation sequence data produced on the GS-FLX 454 platform (Roche, Germany) following methods described by Abdelkrim et al ( 2009 ).…”