Deveploping Microsatellite Markers for Insect Population Structure: Complex Variation in a Checkerspot Butterfly

• Published in: Hereditas Vol. 123; no. 3; pp. 295 - 300
• Main Authors: Palo, Jukka, Varvio, Sirkka-Liisa, Hansk1, Ilkka, VäinÖlä, Risto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Munksgaard International Publishers 01.04.1995
• ISSN: 0018-0661; 1601-5223
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-5223.1995.00295.x

We isolated and characterized two microsatellite markers from the genome of the endangered checkerspot butterfly Melitaea cinxia L. In Finland, this species only survives on the Åland islands, where it exhibits a highly fragmented metapopulation structure on small meadows. Four alleles were observed at the locus CINXI and nine at CINX4; the total gene diversities at the two loci were Hh= 0.34 and 0.80, respectively. A pilot survey showed moderate gene frequency differentiation among meadows (local populations; FLM= 0.1) and among metapopulations c. 30 km apart (FMT= 0.2). Contrary to prior expectation, distinct feeding larval groups collected in the spring did not represent offspring of single females. There was a conspicuous excess of homozygotes within local populations (FIL= 0.35), which can hardly be attributed to population structure alone; this urges caution in straightforward interpretation of microsatellite phenotype data.