The use of DNA microsatellite markers for determining paternity in a captive cheetah population

A litter of four cubs was born to a cheetah at the Hoedspruit Research and Breeding Centre. The identity of the father was uncertain, being either a c heetah with the king cheetah phenotype, or another with the normal phenotyp e. In order to determine whether the cubs could carry the king cheetah gene , microsatellite analyses were carried out using DNA primers developed orig inally for the domestic cat. Three out of ten sets of primers were found to give polymorphic patterns. one displaying as many as five alleles in the n ine individuals studied. The results of the paternity analysis enabled the king cheetah candidate to be excluded as the parent of three of the cubs, w ith the other candidate showing patterns consistent with paternity for all cubs. Unlike allozymes, which show almost no variability in cheetahs, micro satellites are variable enough to provide information of value for a range of genetic studies on this species.