Abstract
BackgroundHyacinth macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus is the largest parrot of the world and is considered vulnerable to extinction due to its habitat loss and illegal trade associated to the international pet market demand. Genetic studies on this species are still incipient to generate a consistent characterization of the population dynamics and to develop appropriate conservation strategies. In this sense, microsatellite markers may support the detection of a population genetic structure for this bird species. However, at this time, none Hyacinth macaw species-specific primers for microsatellite loci have been so far established. This study aimed to develop and characterize polymorphic microsatellite markers for A. hyacinthinus and to check for their cross-amplification in other parrot species.FindingsSequences containing repeated dinucleotide motifs were prospected and optimized from a genomic library that was enriched for microsatellites using magnetic beads. The analyses of 43–57 samples from wild individuals of three distinct Brazilian subpopulations led to the characterization of five polymorphic microsatellite loci. Allele richness per locus ranged from two to 12. Three loci exhibited observed heterozygosity values higher than 50 %, but the overall average value among all loci was close to 45 %. In addition, successful primer cross-amplification was verified in seven other investigated species of Neotropical parrots.ConclusionsThe newly developed markers have shown to be potentially useful for in situ and ex situ population studies to support future conservation actions of Hyacinth macaw and other parrots.
Highlights
Hyacinth macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus is the largest parrot of the world and is considered vulnerable to extinction due to its habitat loss and illegal trade associated to the international pet market demand
Genetic studies have gained prominence to aid in the conservation of a wide-range endangered vertebrates [6,7,8,9], including bird species [6]
Microsatellite loci have shown to be useful in variable contexts, notably to estimate the influence of genetic components in population studies [10], to trace the geographic origin of unknown individuals [11] or to determine the kinship of siblings [12], among other applications
Summary
Hyacinth macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus is the largest parrot of the world and is considered vulnerable to extinction due to its habitat loss and illegal trade associated to the international pet market demand. Available studies on Hyacinth macaw have used nonspecific microsatellite markers to assess the genetic variability of this species [14], their population genetic structure [15, 16] and to identify the probable geographic origin of a rescued individual from captivity [16]. The use of heterologous microsatellite primers generally leads to a decrease in the polymorphism level as the phylogenetic distance among species increases [24,25,26].
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