Characterization of nine microsatellite loci for Dicrocoelium dendriticum, an emerging liver fluke of ungulates in North America, and their use to detect clonemates and random mating

This study characterizes polymorphic microsatellite loci from adults of the liver fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum sampled from a population of sympatric beef cattle and wapiti in a region of emergence in southern Alberta, Canada. We also scrutinized the markers to validate their use in studying the population genetics of this complex life cycle parasite. Among the nine loci described, four deviated significantly from Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) due to technical artefacts. The remaining five loci were in HWE. These five provided sufficient resolution to identify clonemates produced from the obligate asexual reproduction phase of the life cycle in snails and to assess the impact of non-random transmission of clonemates on measures of FIS, FST and genotypic disequilibrium. Excluding clonemates, we show that the sub-population of worms was in HWE, that average FIS within hosts was 0.003 (p=0.4922) and that there was no population genetic structure among hosts FST=0.001 (p=0.3243). These markers will be useful for studies of Dicrocoelium dendriticum ecology, transmission, and evolution.