HIGH-LEVELS OF POLYMORPHISM DETECTED WITH M13 FINGERPRINTING PROBE INBIRD SPECIES AND POPULATIONS

Hypervariable minisatellite markers have widely been used in forensic, paternity, and mating system studies, and applied to population genet ics of animals and plants. In birds, minisatellite DNA fingerprinting was first developed through the use of 33.15 and 33.6 poly-core probes . To date, few studies exist where other fingerprinting probes have be en used. The aim of the present analysis is to extend the use of the M 13 minisatellite probe to the genetic study of natural populations of passerine and non-passerine birds through the optimization of an easy- to-make procedure, in order to address questions related with the biog eography, ecology, reproductive biology, and systematics of this group . The M13 fingerprinting probe yielded multibanded fingerprints from t he genomes of all species analysed, and the average number of bands wa s comparable with values obtained in literature using different multif ocus probes. Similarity values varied according to the phylogenetic di stances among taxonomic units. In Passer montanus, the analysed popula tions proved to be genetically distinct, and the within-population sim ilarity values were comparable with those obtained, using the same tec hnique, in a congener ic species.