Parentage and genetic diversity studies on pangolin (manis javanica) using novel microsatellite markers

Abstract

The Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica) is an endangered mammal species exhibiting scales characteristics. The conservation and management of this species could benefit from a better understanding of its genetic diversity and structure. In this study, 24 novel SSRs were isolated from full-length transcriptome and they were used for assessing of parent-offspring relationship for M. javanica. All SSR markers were highly polymorphic with a mean of 6 alleles per locus, ranged from 2 to 10 alleles. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.62. The observed (HO) and expected average heterozygosity (HE) value was 0.56 and 0.67 tested in 39 individual samples. For parentage testing, the allele frequency date-based indicated that the combined exclusion probability values were over 99.99% when 9 SSRs were used. This study demonstrated that the microsatellite-based approach could be effectively utilized for parentage analysis in pangolins and that it has a significant application in selective breeding in endangered and valuable mammalian species.