Characterization of 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the Japanese bush warbler Cettia diphone: PRIMER NOTE

Japanese bush warblers, Cettia diphone, are a common species in Japan and have a polygynous breeding system. In the breeding ground some males have their own territories with more than one female. Male floaters are also not uncommon in the breeding ground. To understand breeding strategy in this species, exact parentage should be elucidated. In order to obtain a tool for this purpose, we isolated 34 microsatellite loci from a genomic library in this species and developed primers for 12 loci. These primers were tested in the Japanese bush warbler and successfully amplified. In analyses of 49 unrelated individuals, allelic numbers ranged from two to 22, and observed heterozygosity (H-o) ranged from 0.27 to 0.854 except for two loci (Cdi29 and Cdi35a) with H-o < 0.1.