Abstract
Background
Astronium fraxinifolium is an endangered tree species from Brazil. Due to its high importance for environmental reforestation, as well as for the use of its wood, it is necessary to implement management programs for conservation of this species. Simple sequence repeats (SSR) or microsatellite markers have been widely used in population genetic studies across diverse organisms. In this study, we reported for the first time SSR markers for A. fraxinifolium as well as its frequency and distribution from transcriptome data.
Results
More than 125 thousand RNA-seq sequences derived microsatellites, with predominant distribution of trinucleotides repeats. From the initial screening, we selected 20 microsatellite loci, validated and evaluated genetic indexes in two natural populations. All loci were polymorphic, ranging from four to eleven alleles per locus. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0 to 1.0 and from 0.533 to 1.0, respectively. Genetic differentiation between populations (= 0.363) showed higher diversity within than among populations.
Conclusions
The developed SSR loci from RNA-seq consists in a base for future studies of genetic diversity and population structure, mating system and gene flow in A. fraxinifolium populations as well as related species, aiming the conservation and management of the species.
Small effect of fragmentation on the genetic diversity of Dalbergia monticola, an endangered tree species of the eastern forest of Madagascar, detected by chloroplast and nuclear microsatellites