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Highly polymorphic microsatellite markers for the assessment of male reproductive skew and genetic variation in critically endangered crested macaques (Macaca nigra)

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Muniz,  Laura
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;
Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Widdig,  Anja       
Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;
Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Engelhardt, A., Muniz, L., Perwitasari-Farajallah, D., & Widdig, A. (2017). Highly polymorphic microsatellite markers for the assessment of male reproductive skew and genetic variation in critically endangered crested macaques (Macaca nigra). International Journal of Primatology, 38(4), 672-691. doi:10.1007/s10764-017-9973-x.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-6F83-7
Abstract
Genetic analyses based on noninvasively collected samples have become an
important tool for evolutionary biology and conservation. Crested macaques (Macaca
nigra), endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia, are important for our understanding of primate
evolution as Sulawesi macaques represent an exceptional example of primate adaptiveradiation. Crestedmacaques are also Critically Endangered. However, to date we know very
little about their genetics. The aim of our study was to find and validate microsatellite
markers useful for evolutionary, conservation, and other genetic studies on wild crested
macaques. Using fecal samples of 176 wild macaques living in the Tangkoko Reserve,
Sulawesi,we identified 12 polymorphicmicrosatellite loci through cross-species polymerase
chain reaction amplification with later modification of some of these primers.We tested their
suitability by investigating and exploring patterns of paternity, observed heterozygosity, and
evidence for inbreeding. We assigned paternity to 63 of 65 infants with high confidence.
Among cases with solved paternity, we found no evidence of extragroup paternity and natal
breeding. We found a relatively steep male reproductive skew B index of 0.330 ± 0.267;
mean ± SD) and mean alpha paternity of 65% per year with large variation across groups
and years (29–100%). Finally, we detected an excess in observed heterozygosity and no
evidence of inbreeding across our three study groups, with an observed heterozygosity of
0.766 ± 0.059 and expected heterozygosity of 0.708 ± 0.059, and an inbreeding coefficient
of −0.082 ± 0.035. Our results indicate that the selected markers are useful for genetic
studies on wild crested macaques, and possibly also on other Sulawesi and closely related
macaques. They further suggest that the Tangkoko population of crested macaques is still
genetically variable despite its small size, isolation, and the species’ reproductive patterns.
This gives us hope that other endangered primate species living in small, isolated
populations may also retain a healthy gene pool, at least in the short term.