Explaining functional connectivity among occupied habitats is crucial for understanding metapopulation dynamics and species ecology. Landscape genetics has primarily focused on elucidating how ecological features between observations influence gene flow. Functional connectivity, however, may be the result of both these between-site (landscape resistance) landscape characteristics and at-site (p...

The present study was conducted to analyze the genetic characteristics of the Donggyeong dog and establish parentage conservation systems for it by using 10 microsatellite markers recommended by the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG). A total of 369 dogs from 12 dog breeds including the Donggyeong dog were genotyped using 10 microsatellite loci. The number of alleles per locus var...

Captive breeding is used to supplement populations of many species that are declining in the wild. The suitability of and long-term species survival from such programs remain largely untested, however. We measured lifetime reproductive success of the first two generations of steelhead trout that were reared in captivity and bred in the wild after they were released. By reconstructing a three-ge...

The spotted babylon, Babylonia areolata, is one of the most extensively cultured marine mollusks in southeast Asia. Eight polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for this species, from a microsatellite-enriched library. These markers, characterized in 32 individuals from a hatchery population, were polymorphic, with allele numbers ranging from 6 to 18 per locus, expected and obs...

Kinship shapes female social networks in many primate populations in which females remain in their natal group to breed. In contrast, it is unclear to which extent kinship affects the social networks in populations with female dispersal. Female Colobus vellerosus show routine facultative dispersal (i.e., some females remain philopatric and others disperse). This dispersal pattern allowed us to ...

The isolated population of the Island of Susak was thoroughly studied by a multidisciplinary team of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in early 1950's. Recently, a team of scientists revisited the island. This paper describes the main characteristics of the transition process during which a massive exodus occurred with 90% of the island's population migrating to New Jersey, USA. We summ...

The sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) is an important item in Asian cuisine. It is currently produced through aquaculture, especially in China, after being overexploited in the wild in the 1990s. We isolated 70 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci using an enrichment-colony hybridization protocol. All loci were characterized in 48 individuals from a natural population in Rongcheng (S...

The goal of captive breeding programmes is often to maintain genetic diversity until re-introductions can occur. However, due in part to changes that occur in captive populations, approximately one-third of re-introductions fail. We evaluated genetic changes in captive populations using microsatellites and mtDNA. We analysed six populations of white-footed mice that were propagated for 20 gener...

Microsatellite (MS) polymorphism is an important source of genetic diversity, providing support for map-based cloning and molecular breeding. We have developed a new database that contains 52 845 polymorphic MS loci between indica and japonica, composed of ample Class II MS markers, and integrated 18 828 MS loci from IRGSP and genetic markers from RGP. Based on genetic marker positions on the r...

The genetic relationships of five Indian horse breeds, namely Marwari, Spiti, Bhutia, Manipuri and Zanskari were studied using microsatellite markers. The DNA samples of 189 horses of these breeds were amplified by polymerase chain reaction using 25 microsatellite loci. The total number of alleles varied from five to 10 with a mean heterozygosity of 0.58 ± 0.05. Spiti and Zansakari were the mos...