Individual identification and paternity determination in Asian elephant by using microsatellite markers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to set up a panel of highly polymorphic microsatellite markers suitable for individual identification and parentage verification in Asian elephant. A random sample of elephants was typed for 18 microsatellite loci known to be polymorphic either in African or in Asian elephant. The number of alleles varied from 3 to 18 with an average of 9.9 alleles per locus. The expected heterozygosity (He) values of the markers ranged from 0.568 to 0.927 and PIC values from 0.499 to 0.911. The locus specific mean paternity exclusion (PE) probabilities ranged from 0.299 to 0.852 with an average of 0.632. The cumulative mean exclusion probabilities for the 2 loci with the highest exclusion probabilities was 97.5, for the best 3 was 99.5, and for the best 5 exceeded 99.8. The cumulative individualization potential (PID) for the best 5 loci was 3.18 × 10–8, which was equivalent to a probability of 3.15 × 10–7 for selecting 2 identical genotypes in a reference population.