Microsatellite loci of the cattle tick Boophilus microplus (Acari : Ixodidae)

This brief communication reports the identification of microsatellite loci in the economically important tick species Boophilus microplus. The data ar e potentially useful in distinguishing different strains of B. microplus. E ight polymorphic loci were isolated in larvae, male and female adults analy sed individually from 12 field isolates and laboratory strains from Austral ia (n = 8), Brazil, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe. Nucleotide seque ncing of alleles at these microsatellite loci revealed that non-repeat base s interrupted dinucleotide and tetranucleotide repeats in some loci. Loci w ith non-repeat bases interrupting them were shorter compared with loci that were not interrupted. Thus the presence of non-repeat bases in a repeated sequence seems to constrain the evolution of additional repeats by slip-str and misparing at these loci.