Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the Reevese’s butterfly lizard Leiolepis reevesii (Agamidae)

Abstract

We characterize 25 polymorphic microsatellite loci isolated from Leiolepis reevesii genomic libraries. Thirty-four individuals were collected from two populations, eighteen from a mainland population in Xuwen, Guangdong, and the remaining 16 from an island population in Haikou, Hainan. These markers revealed a relatively high degree of genetic diversity (2–18 alleles per locus) and heterozygosity (HO ranged from 0.000–0.938, and HE ranged from 0.160–0.954). Eight loci exhibited significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) after sequential Bonferroni correction due to heterozygote deficiencies, but only one locus (L311) with low heterozygosity in one population did significantly deviate from HWE in the other. Inbreeding may explain the deviations from HWE. There was no evidence of linkage disequilibrium among pairs of loci in the samples. These microsatellite markers will be useful for future studies focusing on gene flow, population structure and evolutionary history of L. reevesii.