Microsatellite primers for Australian and New Guinean pythons isolated with an efficient marker development method for related species

Abstract

Microsatellites are powerful molecular genetic markers for many evolutionary and biotechnological investigations, however, development of sufficient microsatellite markers is time-consuming and expensive especially considering the vast numbers of species for which they could be used. In light of the conservative nature of microsatellite loci between related species we describe an alternative approach to microsatellite development. A single round of microsatellite isolation enabled the characterization of sufficient loci for a large number of related python species. From 21 loci isolated in the focal species, an average of 86.2% were conserved within the other species while an average of 60.5% were polymorphic in all 13 python species analysed. Our approach will decrease significantly the expense and time required for microsatellite development for large numbers of related species.