Isolation and characterization of 15 polymorphic microsatellite markers for the fig-pollinating wasp, Blastophaga nipponica (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae)

We developed microsatellite markers for the fig-pollinating wasp Blastophaga nipponica Grandi using a dual-suppression-PCR technique. Twenty-one candidates of microsatellite loci were obtained, of which 15 yielded scorable patterns. The degree of polymorphism for the 15 loci was further characterized using summary statistics describing the genetic variation in 60 individuals from three natural populations in Japan. All 15 loci were polymorphic and yielded 2–27 alleles per locus. Overall observed heterozygosity (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were 0.465 and 0.631, respectively. As expected, based on the inbreeding tendency of this species, the mean inbreeding coefficient (FIS) was high (= 0.255). These markers will contribute to studies on the population structure of this species.