Isolation and characterization of highly polymorphic microsatellite loci in Schreibers’ long‐fingered bat, Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)

Five polymorphic, dinucleotide microsatellite loci have been identified and characterized in Schreibers’ long-fingered bat, Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). These include three uninterrupted (CA)n repeats, ranging in length from (CA)17 to (CA)19, one interrupted repeat (CA)4(CG)2(CA)13, and one uninterrupted (GA)27 repeat. All loci were highly polymorphic, with 17–20 alleles identified per locus. Observed heterozygosity levels (0.66–0.82) are lower than expected due to homozygote excess, probably caused by pooling of populations, resulting in population substructuring. All five polymorphic loci were also successfully amplified in the closely related M. fraterculus. Two pairs of primers additionally amplified polymorphic microsatellites in Chaerophon sp.