Abstract
The giant water bug (Abedus herberti) is a large flightless insect that is a keystone predator in aridland aquatic habitats. Extended droughts, possibly due to climate change and groundwater pumping, are causing once-perennial aquatic habitats to dry, resulting in serious conservation concern for some populations. A. herberti also exhibits exclusive male parental care, which has made it a model organism for studying mating systems evolution. Here we describe 17 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci developed for A. herberti. Number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 15, and average observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.579 and 0.697, respectively. These loci can successfully resolve both population genetic structure among sites separated by 3–100 km (F ST = 0.08–0.21, P < 0.0001), and divergent mating strategies within local populations, making them highly useful for conservation genetics studies of this vulnerable species.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Brad Freese, Jeff Eble, Saul Macias, Chris Goforth, Mike Bogan, Mike Blouin, and Arlo Pelegrin for help with genetic analyses and collecting specimens. Funding was provided by National Science Foundation grant DEB-0445366 to D.A.L., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute scholarship to M.E.K., grant No. 2 K12 GM000708 to the PERT Program at the University of Arizona on behalf of T.D.E. from the National Institutes of Health, and Oregon State University (URISC Program).
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Daly-Engel, T.S., Smith, R.L., Finn, D.S. et al. 17 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers for the giant water bug, Abedus herberti (Belostomatidae). Conservation Genet Resour 4, 979–981 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-012-9687-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-012-9687-5