Habitat fragmentation might significantly affect mating and pollen dispersal patterns in plant populations, contributing to the decline of remnant populations. However, wind-pollinated species are able to disperse pollen at longer distances after opening of the canopy. Our objectives were to characterize the mating system parameters and to estimate the average distance of effective pollen dispersal in the windpollinated conifer Austrocedrus chilensis. We sampled 19 "mother trees," 200 progeny, and 81 additional adults (both male and female), in a fragmented population at the Argentinean Patagonian steppe. We registered the spatial positions of individuals and genotyped all samples with five microsatellite markers. We found a high genetic diversity, a moderated rate of biparental inbreeding (t m −t s =0.105), and a complete absence of correlated paternity (r p =−0.015). The effective number of pollen donors contributing to a single mother (N ep ) was 13.9. Applying TWOGENER, we estimated a low but significant differentiation among the inferred pollen pools (Φ FT =0.036, p=0.001) and a very large average pollen dispersal distance (d=1,032.3 m). The leptokurtic distribution (b=0.18) presumes a potential for even larger dispersal distances. The high genetic diversity, the mating patterns, and the extensive pollen dispersal presume that habitat fragmentation did not have a negative impact on pollen movement in this population of A. chilensis. Genetic connectivity among fragmented populations scattered in the Patagonian region is possible, and we stress the need of management policies at the landscape level.

Cross-species amplification of microsatellites is a common procedure to obtain suitable markers to be used in population genetic studies. Primers designed for one (source) species are used to amplify homologous loci in related (target) species. It is expected that phylogenetically close species will share a higher proportion of markers, and genetic distance could be a useful parameter to predict successful transferability between different taxonomic groups.We analyzed twenty-two primer pairs developed for Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze in five target species of the Araucariaceae family. The results were summarized in vectors of presence and absence of bands and compared through the Jaccard similarity index. Using the sequences of eight published genes, genetic distances between pairs of species were estimated and related to transferability rate using Pearson correlations.Successful transfer rate ranged from 31.8 to 77.3%, being these among the highest reported for plants. The highest transfer rate was observed between the South American species. The transferability was confirmed sequencing seven fragments amplified in A. araucana (Molina) K. Koch, and using the best five to estimate genetic diversity parameters in a natural population of this Andean coniferous.Key word: cross species amplification; pairwise genetic distance; conservation of microsatellite loci; Pehuén. ResumenTransferibilidad cruzada de microsatélites a cinco especies de Araucariaceae: una herramienta útil para estudios de genética de poblaciones en Araucaria araucana La transferencia de cebadores que amplifican loci microsatélites desde otras especies es una práctica habitual para obtener marcadores adecuados para estudios de genética poblacional. Los cebadores diseñados en una especie (fuente) son utilizados para amplificar loci homólogos en especies relacionadas (blanco). Se espera que especies cercanas filogenéticamente compartan un mayor número de marcadores y la distancia genética entre especies podría ser un parámetro útil para predecir el éxito de la transferencia entre diferentes grupos taxonómicos.Se analizó la transferencia de veintidós primers, desarrollados para Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze, a cinco especies blanco de la familia Araucariaceae. Los resultados se resumieron en vectores de presencia y ausencia de bandas y fueron comparados a través del índice de similitud de Jaccard. Se estimaron las distancias genéticas de a pares entre las especies analizadas utilizando las secuencias de ocho genes, y se las relacionó con el índice de transferencia utilizando correlaciones de Pearson.El éxito de la transferencia varió entre 31,8 y 77,3%, encontrándose estos valores entre los más altos reportados en plantas. El mayor índice de transferencia se verificó entre las especies sudamericanas. La transferencia fue confirmada secuenciando siete fragmentos amplificados en Araucaria araucana (Molina) K. Koch, y utilizando los cinco mejores para estimar parámetros de diversidad genética en una población natural de esta...