Isolation of polymorphic microsatellite loci from the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis.

Two microsatellites were isolated from a genomic library of Echinococcus multilocularis. The microsatellites, designated EMms1 and EMms2, consist of tandem repeats of CAC-trinucleotide unit. Southern blot hybridization suggests that each of them is a single locus. Using fox-derived wild tapeworms (N=104), PCR-amplification of microsatellites was performed to assess the usefulness of these loci. We found four alleles of EMms1 and two alleles of EMms2. The heterozygosities observed were 10.6% in EMms1 and 7.7% in EMms2. The result suggests that both selfing and outcrossing occur in the adult stage of E. multilocularis.