Development and characterization of microsatellite markers in Rosy-faced and other lovebirds (Agapornis spp.) using next-generation sequencing

Agapornis are a group of small African parrots that are heavily traded around the world. They are invasive species in many places, but some of them are listed as Vulnerable or Near Threatened. However, the genetic tools for assessing inter-individual relationships, population structure, and genetic diversity of these birds are very limited. Therefore, we developed polymorphic microsatellite markers in A. roseicollis and tested the transferability on 5 lovebird species including A. personatus , A. nigrigenis , A. fischeri , A. pullarius , and A. canus , and two closely related outgroups (i.e. Bolbopsittacus lunulatus and Loriculus galgulus ). We first performed whole-genome re-sequencing on five individuals of A. roseicollis to identify potential polymorphic loci. Out of 37 loci tested in 11 A. roseicollis , 27 loci were demonstrated to be polymorphic, with the number of the alleles ranging from 2 to 7 (mean = 3.963). The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.875 (mean = 0.481) and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.233 to 0.842 (mean = 0.642). Five loci ( Agro-A13 , p