Genetic characteristics of the common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) using microsatellites in Lithuania

Abstract

Population genetic analysis becomes more and more popular as a  tool to use in animal conservation (Broquet, Petit, 2009). The  common or hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) is a member of the rodent family Gliridae (Juškaitis, 2008a). These rodents are vulnerable to natural habitat changes, and because of this monitoring of the common dormouse was carried out in many countries (Bright et al., 2006), but there is still lack of genetic data. It is well known that microsatellites are being used to investigate the genetic structure of natural populations (Balloux, Lugon-Moulin, 2002). In our study we used 5 microsatellite primers to investigate 17 common dormouse samples from different places in Lithuania and Latvia. For DNA extraction non-invasive hair samples were used. The results show that the Mav023 primer with 13 alleles is the most informative primer, while the Mav002 primer with 2 alleles is the  least informative one. The  expected heterozygosity (He) per locus was between 0.5 and 0.743, and the  observed heterozygosity (Ho) per locus was between 0.463 and 1, except Mav005 with 0.257.