Developing genomic resources for the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus): isolation and characterisation of 153 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 53 genotyping assays

Although single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are commonly used in human genetics, they have only recently been incorporated into genetic studies of non-model organisms, including cetaceans. SNPs have several advantages over other molecular markers for studies of population genetics: they are quicker and more straightforward to score, cross-laboratory comparisons of data are less complicated, and they can be used successfully with low-quality DNA. We screened portions of the genome of one of the most abundant cetaceans in U.S. waters, the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), and identified 153 SNPs resulting in an overall average of one SNP every 463 base pairs. Custom TaqMan® Assays were designed for 53 of these SNPs and their performance was tested by genotyping a set of bottlenose dolphin samples, including some with low quality DNA. We found that in 19% of the loci examined, the minor allele frequency (MAF) estimated during initial SNP ascertainment using a DNA pool of ...