Isolation and characterization of microsatellites in Drosophila montana and their cross-species amplification in D. virilis

We report the isolation of 20 microsatellite loci from Drosophila montana and their cross amplification in the relative D. virilis . All microsatellite loci were polymorphic in the focal species D. montana , with gene diversities ranging from 0.23 to 0.93. In D. virilis only eight loci (40%) amplified and two loci were polymorphic (10%). These markers represent the first report of microsatellites isolated in D. montana . They could be applied for studying population structure and phylogeography. The largest benefit, however, will be their use in studies of quantitative trait loci, such as the mapping of behavioural quantitative trait loci.