The use of molecular techniques for parentage analysis has been a booming science for over a decade. The most important technological breakthrough was the introduction of microsatellite markers to molecular ecology, an advance that was accompanied by a proliferation and refinement of statistical techniques for the analysis of parentage data. Over the last several years, we have seen steady prog...

A generalized single-step stepwise mutation model (SMM) is developed that takes into account an arbitrary initial state to a certain partial difference equation. This is solved in both the approximate continuum limit and the more exact discrete form. A time evolution model is developed for Y DNA or mtDNA that takes into account the reflective boundary modeling minimum microsatellite length and ...

Branchiostoma belcheri Gray is a second-class, nationally protected protochordate in China. We developed 10 novel polymorphic sites in B. belcheri, which were examined using a population of 30 wild individuals from Xiamen, China. The polymorphism information content ranged between 0.141 and 0.681, and the number of alleles varied from 2 to 5. The expected and observed heterozygosities varied be...

This paper takes from the collection of models considered by Whittaker et al. [2003. Likelihood-based estimation of microsatellite mutation rates. Genetics 164, 781-787] derived from direct observation of microsatellite mutation in parent-child pairs and provides analytical expressions for the probability distributions for the change in number of repeats over any given number of generations. Th...

We have examined differences in diversity at 60 microsatellite loci among human population samples from three major continental groups to evaluate the hypothesis of greater African diversity in this rapidly evolving class of loci. Application of a statistical test that assumes equal mutation rates at all loci fails to demonstrate differences in microsatellite diversity, while a randomization te...

Teleogryllus oceanicus, a cricket native to Australia, was introduced to Hawaii where it encounters a novel natural enemy responsible for their recent rapid evolutionary loss of singing ability. To explore how genetic diversity varies across their broad range, their mode of introduction to Hawaii and nonadaptive influences on the sexual signalling system, we assessed variation at seven microsat...

Marker-based methods for estimating heritability have been proposed as an effective means to study quantitative traits in long-lived organisms and natural populations. However, practical examinations to evaluate the usefulness and robustness of a regression method are limited. Using several quantitative traits of Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus, the present study examined the influence...

Bromeliaceae is an important botany family that includes many species with economic value; demand for members of this family is increasing. However, illegal collection frequently occurs, drastically reducing the species populations; thus, it is necessary to collect and store Bromeliaceae genetic material. In this study, we identified and quantified genetic variability of the Bromeliad family us...

Thirteen polymorphic microsatellite loci are described for the South American freshwater fish Percichthys trucha. Number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 21 and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.304 to 0.915 in a sample of 47 individuals from four different sampling locations.