Waste not, want not: microsatellites remain an economical and
informative technology for conservation genetics
Abstract
Comparisons of microsatellite and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
have found that SNPs outperform microsatellites in population genetic
analyses, calling into the question the continued utility of
microsatellites in population and landscape genetics. Yet highly
polymorphic markers may be of value in species that have reduced genetic
variation. This study repeated analyses previously done using
microsatellites with SNPs developed from ddRAD sequencing in the
black-capped vireo source-sink system. SNPs provided greater resolution
of genetic diversity, population differentiation, and migrant detection
but could not reconstruct parentage relationships due to insufficient
heterozygosities. The biological inferences made by both sets of markers
were similar: asymmetrical gene flow from source populations to the
remaining sink populations. With the landscape genetic analyses, we
found different results between the two molecular markers, but
associations of the top environmental features (riparian, open habitat,
agriculture, and human development) with dispersal estimates were shared
between marker types. Despite the higher precision of SNPs, we find that
microsatellites effectively uncover population processes and patterns
and are superior for parentage analyses in this species with reduced
genetic diversity. This study illustrates the continued applicability
and relevance of microsatellites in population genetic research.