Cross-species genetic markers: a useful tool to study the world's most threatened wild equid-Equus africanus

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

rosenbom, s (Author) Other; costa, v (Author) Other; steck, b (Author) Other; moehlman, p (Author) Other; beja-pereira, a (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: European Journal of Wildlife Research

Vol. 58

Pages: 609-613

ISSN: 1612-4642

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 6 Citations

Scopus - 7 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Biological sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-9MR

DOI: 10.1007/s10344-011-0578-y

Abstract (EN): Once a diverse family, the Equidae family is now reduced to a single genus, Equus. From the seven extant species of the genus, the African wild ass (Equus africanus) is the most threatened with extinction (last survey indicated 600 individuals). In this work we tested 25 published microsatellite primer pairs isolated from the horse genome on 22 African wild ass (E. africanus) individuals from wildlife reserves and zoos. From the 25 loci tested, 15 amplified well and showed moderate allelic richness (5.06, mean number of alleles) and moderately high expected heterozigosity (0.59). Although all possible loci pairs showed no significant gametic disequilibrium (P > 0.007), deviations from Hardy-Weinberg proportions were found in 2 out of the 15 analysed microsatellite loci (AHT5 and VHL20). Here, we propose these polymorphic markers to be used as a standard set in future studies on population and conservation genetics of the African wild ass.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 5