Abstract
We have tested for the occurrence of multiple paternity in wild common shrews by karyotypic analysis and DNA-fingerprinting of five wild-caught females and their litters. Karyotypic data suggest that some litters were sired by more than one male, but provide no definitive evidence. By using DNA-fingerprinting, it was possible to establish that two males sired the litter of two females. The present report shows that multiple paternity is not a rare phenomenon in the common shrew and by using DNA-fingerprinting it is possible to assign individual offspring to different male parents even when none of the putative fathers are available for inspection.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Alec J. Jeffreys for the 33.15 minisatellite clone and Susanne Veenhuizen for technical assistance. The manuscript benefited from comments and suggestions from Cathy Jones, Kate Lessells, Honor Prentice and Paula Stockley. This investigation was supported by grants from the Swedish Natural Science Research Council (HT), the Erik Philip-Sörensen Foundation (HT), The Royal Society of London (JS) and the Natural Environment Research Council (SM).
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Tegelström, H., Searle, J., Brookfield, J. et al. Multiple paternity in wild common shrews (Sorex araneus) is confirmed by DNA-fingerprinting. Heredity 66, 373–379 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1991.47
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1991.47
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