Development and annotation of species-specific microsatellite markers from transcriptome sequencing for a higher group termite, Globitermes sulphureus Haviland (Blattodea: Termitidae)

Abstract

The wood-feeding subterranean termite, Globitermes sulphureus Haviland (Blattodea: Termitidae) is an important decomposer and a secondary pest in agricultural areas such as oil palm and coconut plantation. Little is known with respect to the role of G. sulphureus in ecology, biology, dispersal range, and its control measures. Adding to these, knowledge concerning the colony of G. sulphureus in the urban is considered limited since attention is intensely given to the native G. sulphureus colony in the forested settings. In this study, samples of G. sulphureus were collected from 10 grounded populations and another 10 native populations throughout the Northern part of Malaysia. 30 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed and characterized from transcriptome dataset of urban-originating G. sulphureus enriched for di-, tri- and tetranucleotide repeat motifs. Thirty primer pairs were successfully amplified DNA fragments from 600 isolates of G. sulphureus, revealing an overall of 180 alleles. The number of alleles per locus identified ranged from 3 to 9. Among sequences containing microsatellites, dinucleotides repeats were the most abundant (44.57%), followed by trinucleotides repeats (41.99%), tetranucleotides repeats (11.18%), pentanucleotides repeats (1.84%), and hexanucleotides repeats (0.42%). This is the first report of microsatellite polymorphisms in G. sulphureus. The microsatellite primers developed in this current work may facilitate in population genetic study of this termite species.