Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci from forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii)

This study reported the isolation and characterization of eight polymorphic microsatellite loci in endangered forest musk deer Moschus berezovskii. An improved enrichment protocol was used to isolate microsatellites, and polymorphism was explored with samples from wild musk deer population collected in Miyalo of Sichuan Province in China. Approximately 70% of clones from the genomic library constructed in current study contained dinucleotide (AC) repeats. Eight microsatellite loci amplified were highly polymorphic within forest musk deer population. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 14, and the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.41 approximately 1.0 and from 0.8 approximately 0.9, respectively. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value for these markers was 0.82. This demonstrated that the eight microsatellite loci developed here are highly polymorphic, and can be used as genetic markers for further investigation of musk deer. Also, the results showed that the musk deer distributed in Miyalo had a relatively higher level of genetic variation.