Developing a Panel of Microsatellite Markers for Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) as a Research Tool for Population Studies

Abstract

The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) sometimes exhibits brood parasitism - a parent manipulating a conspecific host to raise its offspring, relieving the parent of the encumbrance of parental investment. It has been observed that expression of this behavior may be affected by genetic relatedness in two distinct populations of common moorhen. The proposed hypothesis is that genetic relatedness between hosts and parasites has an effect on the evolution of brood parasitism and on the cost to the host of raising offspring not their own. It is expected that the population with higher brood parasitism will exhibit lower levels of genetic relatedness than the other. / / With DNA samples for both populations, the project goal was to develop a panel of microsatellite markers as a tool to assess genetic relatedness; such a panel has never previously been produced for the common moorhen. A selection of markers developed for related species was screened in order to develop an optimized panel of microsatellite markers, selected from among those found to have >3 variable alleles when amplified in the common moorhen. These markers will be used to genotype members of each population to assess genetic relatedness among individuals. The data will then be used to determine whether there is an effect of relatedness on brood parasitism. / / Of 47 primer pairs tested, 29 (62%) amplify a product in the common moorhen. Of the 10 best optimized primer sets, all were shown to be variable with each having no fewer than 3 alleles. Eight of the 10 loci were more variable in the larger population, based on samples tested so far.