The house fly (Musca domestica L.) is a synanthropic species distributed worldwide. Due to their mode of feeding, developmental habitats, unrestricted movement, and attraction to places where food is prepared, house flies may greatly amplify the risk of exposure to food-borne and other pathogens. In order to determine the house fly dispersal and breeding structure, molecular markers were developed in our laboratory. Seventeen microsatellite primers were generated using the house fly DNA enriched for various repeat sequences. Forty adult house flies from different locations within Manhattan, Kansas were tested for all the loci. Nine loci were found polymorphic with the number of alleles ranging from two to four. Extensive temporal and spatial (rural and urban habitats) sampling and testing of house flies using the polymorphic loci gives an insight to the population sub-structuring and movement and will potentially lead to development of a fingerprinting technique for house fly population ecology.
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