Development of 10 microsatellite loci for Yellow-billed Magpies (Pica nuttalli) and corvid ecology and West Nile virus studies

Holly B Ernest; Jay A Well; Jennifer D Kurushima

doi:10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01921.x

Development of 10 microsatellite loci for Yellow-billed Magpies (Pica nuttalli) and corvid ecology and West Nile virus studies

Mol Ecol Resour. 2008 Jan;8(1):196-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01921.x.

Authors

Holly B Ernest¹, Jay A Well, Jennifer D Kurushima

Affiliation

¹ Wildlife and Ecology Unit, Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Department of Population Health and Reproduction, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

PMID: 21585754
DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01921.x

Abstract

We developed 10 polymorphic microsatellite loci for Yellow-billed Magpies (Pica nuttalli). The primers were tested across a population of 57 Central California Yellow-billed Magpies and displayed an average of 3.9 alleles per locus. Forty-one American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) from California were polymorphic for seven of the loci with an average of 2.9 alleles per locus. One additional microsatellite-containing locus displayed diagnostic allele sizes and may be useful to distinguish between the two species. These corvid specific microsatellites will aid ecological studies of the population-level effects of diseases, such as West Nile virus.