Polymorphic microsatellite loci for the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and some remarks on their isolation.

Five polymorphic tri- and tetranucleotide microsatellite loci suitable for population genetic analysis were identified in the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera from two partial phagemid genomic libraries enriched for microsatellite inserts. The overall microsatellitecloning efficiency in H. armigera is 2.5% , which is approximately eightfold lower than that for the gadoid fishes (20%) employing the same enrichment protocol, supporting the notion of a relative low frequency of microsatellite sequences in lepidopteran genomes. In addition, a large proportion of cloned microsatellite sequences turned out to be repetitive DNA, thus further increasing the difficulty of developing such markers in butterflies and moths.