title: Developing microsatellite markers for insect population structure: complex variation in a checkerspot butterfly.
abstract: We isolated and characterized two microsatellite markers from the genome of the endangered checkerspot butterfly Melitaea cinxia L. In Finland, this species only survives on the Aland islands, where it exhibits a highly fragmented metapopulation structure on small meadows. Four alleles were observed at the locus CINX1 and nine at CINX4; the total gene diversities at the two loci were HT = 0.34 and 0.80, respectively. A pilot survey showed moderate gene frequency differentiation among meadows (local populations; FLM = 0.1) and among metapopulations c. 30 km apart (FMT = 0.2). Contrary to prior expectation, distinct feeding larval groups collected in the spring did not represent offspring of single females. There was a conspicuous excess of homozygotes within local populations (FIL = 0.35), which can hardly be attributed to population structure alone; this urges caution in straightforward interpretation of microsatellite phenotype data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Palo
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Varvio
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hanski
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Väinölä
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002080:Butterflies / Q000235:genetics*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D017931:DNA Primers; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006720:Homozygote; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004276:DNA, Satellite