Identification and evaluation of novel di- and tetranucleotide microsatellite markers from the brown bear (Ursus arctos)

We here describe 34 novel microsatellite loci from the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) identified using a next-generation sequencing approach. While we found allelic variation in 30 of these, we selected 16 polymorphic microsatellites (11 di- and 5 tetranucleotide repeats) for four multiplex-PCR assays based on genetic variability, PCR performance and interpretability. Applying these assays for the 16 novel microsatellites, we screened 31 brown bears from a northern European population. The number of alleles encountered at single loci was between 4 and 10, and expected and observed heterozygosities ranged between 0.66–0.85 and 0.60–0.97, respectively. Seven of 120 pairwise locus combinations showed linkage disequilibrium and one locus deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, while no null-alleles were detected. Our novel multiplex-PCR assays may be useful in forensics, parentage and population genetic studies.