Development of 79 SNP markers to individually genotype and sex-type endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei)

The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is one of two endangered subspecies of eastern gorilla. The principle approach to monitoring the two extant mountain gorilla populations has been to use fecal surveys to obtain DNA profiles for individuals that are then used for capture-recapture-based estimates of abundance. To date, 11 to 14 microsatellites have been used for this purpose. To adapt to ongoing changes in genotyping technologies and to facilitate the analysis of fecal DNA samples by multiple laboratories, we developed a panel of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers that can be used for future gorilla monitoring. We used published short read data sets for 3 individuals to develop a suite of 79 SNPs, including two sex markers, for a Fluidigm platform. This marker set provided high resolution to differentiate individuals and will facilitate future monitoring, leaving room for additional SNPs to be included in a 96-assay format.