Microsatellite multiplex assay for sable (Martes zibellina) and pine marten (Martes martes)

We evaluate the applicability of the microsatellite multiplex assay of 11 short tandem repeat loci for individual identification of sable and pine marten, taxonomic identification ofMartesspecies, and assessment of inter-population separation of sable populations isolated by distance. Based on the screening, we detected 50 and 80-82 alleles in pine marten and two sable populations, respectively. All 11 microsatellite markers of the proposed PCR assay were characterized by the same range of allele length in the twoMartenspecies, which makes species identification unfeasible using any of the loci alone. However, the combination of all 11 loci differentiated sables and pine martens, and more importantly provided the opportunity to identify their hybrids in the sympatry range zone. Using the proposed microsatellite assay, we successfully identified geographic origin of most genotyped sable individuals.