Skip Navigation


Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on October 26, 2005
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(6):679-687; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi117
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
96/6/679    most recent
esi117v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Okello, J. B. A.
Right arrow Articles by Siegismund, H. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Okello, J. B. A.
Right arrow Articles by Siegismund, H. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The American Genetic Association. 2005. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Noninvasive Genotyping and Mendelian Analysis of Microsatellites in African Savannah Elephants

J. B. A. Okello, G. Wittemyer, H. B. Rasmussen, I. Douglas-Hamilton, S. Nyakaana, P. Arctander, and H. R. Siegismund

From the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Makerere University Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, P. O. Box 7298, Kampala, Uganda (Okello, Nyakaana); the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, 201 Wellman Hall, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720–3112 (Wittemyer); the Animal Behaviour Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK (Rasmussen); Save the Elephants, PO Box 54667, Nairobi 00200, Kenya (Wittemyer, Rasmussen, Douglas-Hamilton); and the Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15 DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark (Arctander, Siegismund)

Address correspondence to J. B. A. Okello at the address above, or e-mail: jbaokello{at}muienr.mak.ac.ug.

We obtained fresh dung samples from 202 (133 mother-offspring pairs) savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Samburu, Kenya, and genotyped them at 20 microsatellite loci to assess genotyping success and errors. A total of 98.6% consensus genotypes was successfully obtained, with allelic dropout and false allele rates at 1.6% (n = 46) and 0.9% (n = 37) of heterozygous and total consensus genotypes, respectively, and an overall genotyping error rate of 2.5% based on repeat typing. Mendelian analysis revealed consistent inheritance in all but 38 allelic pairs from mother-offspring, giving an average mismatch error rate of 2.06%, a possible result of null alleles, mutations, genotyping errors, or inaccuracy in maternity assignment. We detected no evidence for large allele dropout, stuttering, or scoring error in the dataset and significant Hardy-Weinberg deviations at only two loci due to heterozygosity deficiency. Across loci, null allele frequencies were low (range: 0.000–0.042) and below the 0.20 threshold that would significantly bias individual-based studies. The high genotyping success and low errors observed in this study demonstrate reliability of the method employed and underscore the application of simple pedigrees in noninvasive studies. Since none of the sires were included in this study, the error rates presented are just estimates.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc R Soc BHome page
G. Wittemyer, J. B. A. Okello, H. B. Rasmussen, P. Arctander, S. Nyakaana, I. Douglas-Hamilton, and H. R. Siegismund
Where sociality and relatedness diverge: the genetic basis for hierarchical social organization in African elephants
Proc R Soc B, October 7, 2009; 276(1672): 3513 - 3521.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J HeredHome page
J. B. A. Okello, C. Masembe, H. B. Rasmussen, G. Wittemyer, P. Omondi, O. Kahindi, V. B. Muwanika, P. Arctander, I. Douglas-Hamilton, S. Nyakaana, et al.
Population Genetic Structure of Savannah Elephants in Kenya: Conservation and Management Implications
J. Hered., September 1, 2008; 99(5): 443 - 452.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.