Isolation and Characterisation of Microsatellites in the Genome of Alectoris Rufa

Abstract

Since the introduction of Alectoris chukar in Spain, hybridisation has occurred in the wild and on farms with the native A. rufa but the native species is phenotypically indistinguishable from the hybrid partridges. In order to provide tools for the identification of the native and hybrid birds a partridge genomic library was constructed using the plasmid pSMART-HCKan and Escherichia cloni 10G bacterial cells. DNA from bacteria containing recombinant plasmids was transferred onto nylon hybridisation membranes in order to screen for plasmids containing (AC)₁₃ and (AG)₁₃ which are the most common dinucleotide repeats in the avian genome. DNA hybridisation was performed using (AC)₁₃ and (AG)₁₃ probes labelled with the TexasRed and fluorescein fluorochromes and hybridisation was detected using a fluorescence microscope. Two microsatellites were identified in non-coding regions of the partridge genome and these have been used to characterise a number of A. rufa individuals from different parts of Europe.