Microsatellite Markers for Shining Guest Ant
Amount: £10,000
Location: Highlands
Awarded: December 2022
Formicoxenus nitidulus or Shining Guest Ant. Photo: Philipp Hoenle
Formicoxenus nitidulus or Shining Guest Ant. Photo: Philipp Hoenle
The University of York, along with the James Hutton Institute and Forest Research, aimed to develop the first microsatellite markers to enable a population genetic study of the Shining Guest Ant, a British Action Plan woodland specialist species.
This aim was achieved, with the development and analysis of eight microsatellite markers which showed sufficient variability to be valuable in investigating population genetics.
The project report provides detailed information on the development of population genetics of the Shining Guest Ant.
“We also aimed to generate the first mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data for UK Shining Guest Ants, and this aim has been achieved, with six haplotypes being identified in the COI region of the mitochondrial genome. Currently, there are only three Shining Guest Ant COI sequences available in Genbank, two from Finland and one from Switzerland. Our much more substantial sequence dataset will also be deposited into Genbank (an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences) making the data available to inform future work on this conservation priority species, in the UK and throughout its European range.”