Now here is the thing: Sonja, Marika and Vilppu spent some serious efforts (and bucks) getting all this done. And I kid you not: blood, sweat and tears were shed in the remote, frozen forests of Kuusamo to make this investigation possible. And here they finally are: 100 satellites circulating in the vast genome of the Siberian jay. May they orbit there to the end of the world.
A careful reader of the primer note in the question may observe that the levels genetic variability in the two populations in which the primers were tested differed quite a lot from each others. This is because one of the populations is an isolate close to the species southern distribution margin, suffering from inbreeding and reduced exchange of migrants with neighboring populations. More about this later, but meanwhile, check Jussi’s paper about inbreeding coefficients and heterozygosity estimates to be published in the pages of Conservation Genetics.
Those interested about seeing more gravy pictures on Siberian jays, please visit homepages of Finnish nature photographer Hannu Siitonen, also a former European Champion and Olympic silver medalist in jawelin throwing.
Jaari S, K. Välimäki & J Merilä (2008) Isolation and characterization of 100 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the Siberian jay (Perisoreus infaustus). Molecular Ecology Resources 8:1469 – 1474. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2008.02223.x
