Use of captive wild-stain Northern Bobwhite to test the utility of microsatellites in determining genetic relatedness

Kristine Oswald // L. Wes Burger, Jr. // William E. Palmer

Tall Timbers Research Station and Mississippi State University, Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries

Integrated studies of population ecology and populations genetics must assume that tissue collection methods do not affect survival and reproductive success of sampled individuals. It is therefore important to derive methods for sampling young birds that have the least effect on growth and survival. Before integrated field studies of bobwhite population ecology and population genetics can be implemented, researchers must know which tissue collection methods (neonatal down, patagial micro-biopsy, egg tooth) produce significant quantities of DNA and how tissue sampling affects chicks growth and survival. This project will pursue the following objectives and address the following questions:

  1. Provide 86 tissue samples for testing of amplification and polymorphism testing with a set of potential genetic markers
  2. Determine the genetic relatedness of 86 individual, captive, wild-strain bobwhite residing at the Mississippi State University Wildlife and Fisheries Research and Education facility
  3. Establish bobwhite breeding pairs and produce chicks with known relatedness (full and 1/2 siblings) to test the utility of microsatellites in determining parentage within broods
  4. Determine the utility of egg-shell amniotic membranes for genetic analysis. Specifically, we will determine if sufficient DNA can be extracted from membranes and whether the DNA is that of chick, hen, or chick DNA contaminated with maternal DNA
  5. Determine the effects of 3 tissue collection methods (down, micro-biopsy, and control) taken at four different ages on growth and survival of neonatal bobwhite chicks
  6. Compare the utility of DNA samples from 3 different collection methods (down, biopsy, egg tooth) for subsequent PCR amplification
  7. Conduct a preliminary study to compare the genetic diversity among and within bobwhite populations existing on landscapes with varying levels of habitat fragmentation