Development of Microsatellite Markers for the Neotropical Vine <i>Dalechampia scandens</i> (Euphorbiaceae)

Abstract

Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed to assess polymorphism and level of genetic diversity in four Mexican populations of the neotropical vine Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae). Methods and Results: Thirty-seven microsatellite markers representing bi-, tri-, tetra-, and pentanucleotide microsatellite repeats were developed. In total, 166 alleles were identified across 54 individuals. The number of alleles varied from one to 11 with an average of 4.49 alleles per locus. All loci except one were highly polymorphic between populations, whereas considerably less variation was detected within populations for most loci. The average observed and expected heterozygosities across study populations ranged from 0 to 0.63 and 0 to 0.59, respectively, for individual loci, and a deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was observed for most loci. Conclusions: The developed markers may be useful for studying genetic structure, parentage analysis, mapping, phylogeography, and cross-amplification in other closely related species of Dalechampia.

Keywords

• Dalechampia scandens
• Euphorbiaceae
• genetic diversity
• microsatellite loci