Characterization of 29 polymorphic artiodactyl microsatellite markers for the mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus)

We report the results of a cross-species amplification test of 156 bovine, ovine and cervid microsatellite markers in a wild population of mountain goats, Oreamnos americanus, inhabiting Caw Ridge, Alberta, Canada. Twenty-nine markers were found to be low to moderately polymorphic with between two to nine alleles per locus. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.14 to 0.85 for a sample of 215 mountain goats. This set of markers will be used in parentage analyses to construct the pedigree of the long-term studied population and to investigate the effects of individual genetic variability on life-history traits.