Microsatellite variation in a social insect

We undertook a study to explore the potential of microsatellite loci as genetic markers for investigating kinship patterns in a social wasp Parachartergus colobopterus. A plasmid library with small inserts was screened for several oligonucleotide repeat motifs. Positive clones were sequenced and several were selected for further work. PCR primers were constructed that would amplify the tandem repeat region and a number of female wasps were scored for variation in the number of tandem repeats at these loci. The five amplified loci were far more variable than allozymes, with an average heterozygosity of 0.35.