MICROSATELLITE MARKERS FOR BUTIA ERIOSPATHA (ARECACEAE), A VULNERABLE PALM SPECIES FROM THE ATLANTIC RAINFOREST OF BRAZIL

Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed for the vulnerable palm species Butia eriospatha (Mart. ex Drude) Becc. to investigate genetic diversity, spatial genetic structure, mating system, and population dynamics. Methods and Results: From a genomic library enriched for GA/CA repeats, 14 sets of primers were isolated and characterized for 50 B. eriospatha samples from two populations. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 6 (with amplified dinucleotide repeat-based primers); the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 1.000 and from 0.120 to 0.690, respectively. At least 86% of primers were also amplified for Butia catarinensis Noblick & Lorenzi, another threatened palm species from the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. Conclusions : The new marker set described here will be useful for studies of population genetics of B. eriospatha, and they have been shown to be applicable for other species from the Butia genus.