title: Molecular survey of genetic diversity in the endangered European mink Mustela lutreola.
abstract: The European mink Mustela lutreola is regarded as one of the most endangered mammals in the world. We chose to characterize microsatellite loci in order to investigate the pattern of decline of this species. We used primer pairs developed for a related species Mustela vison to genotype individual of Mustela lutreola. Out of 19 primer pairs used 8 were useful for our purpose. The conservation of primer sequence point out the problem of neutrality of some microsatellite loci as this conservation could be related to strong selection pressure on those loci. Finally we present the first data allowing an estimation of heterozygosity of French population of European mink.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de génétique, Université d'Angers, U.F.R. Sciences, 49045 Angers, France. didier.peltier@univ-angers.fr
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Peltier
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lodé
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017931:DNA Primers; D005060:Europe; D005602:France; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008907:Mink / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers