U.S. Geological Survey, Leetown Science Center, 11649 Leetown Road, Kearneysville, WV, 25430, USA.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Virginia Field Office (Retired), 6669 Short Lane, Gloucester, VA, 23061, USA.
BMC Res Notes. 2020 Mar 23;13(1):171. doi: 10.1186/s13104-020-04985-8.
Tiger beetles inhabiting sandy beaches and cliffs along the east coast of the United States are facing increasing habitat loss due to erosion, urbanization, and sea level rise. The northeastern beach tiger beetle Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis and Puritan tiger beetle Cicindela puritana are both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, while the white beach tiger beetle Cicindela dorsalis media is not listed but has been declining. Extirpation of these beetles, in some cases from entire states, has isolated many populations reducing gene flow and elevating the risk for the loss of genetic variation. To facilitate investigations of population genetic structure, we developed suites of microsatellite loci for conservation genetic studies.
Shotgun genomic sequencing of all species identified thousands of candidate microsatellite loci, among which 17 loci were optimized and verified to cross-amplify within C. d. media and C. d. dorsalis, and eight separate loci were optimized for C. puritana. Most loci conformed to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, showed no evidence of linkage disequilibrium or null alleles, and revealed population genetic characteristics informative for natural resource managers among the populations tested.
栖息在美国东海岸沙滩和悬崖上的虎甲虫正面临着由于侵蚀、城市化和海平面上升导致的栖息地丧失的威胁。东北沙滩虎甲虫 Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis 和清教徒虎甲虫 Cicindela puritana 都被列入了 1973 年《濒危物种法案》的濒危物种名单，而白沙滩虎甲虫 Cicindela dorsalis media 虽然没有被列入名单，但数量却在减少。这些甲虫的灭绝，在某些情况下是从整个州开始的，使许多种群孤立无援，减少了基因流动，并增加了遗传变异丧失的风险。为了便于进行种群遗传结构的研究，我们开发了一套微卫星基因座，用于保护遗传学研究。
对所有物种的鸟枪法基因组测序鉴定了数千个候选微卫星基因座，其中 17 个基因座在 C. d. media 和 C. d. dorsalis 内进行了优化和验证，8 个单独的基因座在 C. puritana 中进行了优化。大多数基因座符合哈迪-温伯格平衡，没有显示连锁不平衡或无效等位基因的证据，并揭示了在所测试的种群中对自然资源管理者有信息价值的种群遗传特征。
