Inheritance of microsatellite markers in the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata.

Microsatellites are useful for population assignment tests and migration studies of exotic pests like the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata.   Proper statistical analysis of microsatellite loci requires that each locus behave according to the rules of Mendelian inheritance.  To test this for the Mediterranean fruit fly, lab-reared and wild type flies from the El Pino Mediterranean fruit fly rearing facility in Guatemala were crossed and alleles at 15 microsatellite loci were genotyped from the parents and progeny.  These microsatellite markers were previously reported to be in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE).  Seven mating groups, each consisting of a lab-reared parent and a wild type parent and 12 to 32 progeny from each parental mating, were examined for this study.  All unique alleles observed in the study were cloned and sequenced to confirm homology.  A total of 63 segregation ratio tests were performed with nine significant departures from expected Mendelian ratios after Bonferroni correction.  Two loci repeatedly exhibited departures from expected Mendelian ratios.   DNA sequencing of alleles at loci that exhibited departures from expected Mendelian ratios within a family revealed evidence of incomplete adenlyation of the 5 prime end of the fragment resulting in null alleles or the false calling of artifactual bands produced during fragment analysis.  This information provides insight into the use of these microsatellites for the analysis of Mediterranean fruit fly populations.