Inselbergs are isolated, mainly granitic and gneissic rock outcrops, forming old landscape elements on crystalline continental shields on all continents. Many Velloziaceae which occur specifically as mat-formers on these rock outcrops are well adapted to harsh environmental conditions and do not occur in the surrounding matrix. Vellozia plicata Mart. is a widespread desiccationtolerant mat-forming species on inselbergs in southeastern Brazil, with naturally fragmented populations. Here, we tested the transferability of 53 microsatellite loci previously developed for two Vellozia species (V. gigantea N. L. Menezes & Mello-Silva and V. squamata Pohl) in two populations of V. plicata. We succeeded in the amplification of 11 loci, and six of them were polymorphic. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 17, the expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 0.875 and from 0.000 to 0.895, respectively. Our results show that cross-amplification works within the genus Vellozia, but at a lower level when compared to other monocot families on inselbergs, such as Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae. This work might help in further studies on population genetics of V. plicata, in order to guide conservation actions in the future and also to promote further investigations about speciation processes of inselberg specialists.
Premise Microsatellite markers were developed for Xerophyta dasylirioides (Velloziaceae), a species endemic to the Malagasy inselbergs, to explore the impact of its island‐like distribution on genetic diversity and gene flow. Methods and Results A total of 7110 perfect microsatellite loci were recovered by shotgun sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. Primer pairs were designed for 40 arbitrarily selected loci. Fifteen primer pairs that generated distinct PCR products were used to genotype 80 individuals of X. dasylirioides from three inselberg populations. All markers were polymorphic, revealing two to 17 alleles in the overall sampling. Levels of observed and expected heterozygosity per locus ranged from zero to 1.000 and from zero to 0.850, respectively. Success rates of cross‐amplification in 10 additional species of Xerophyta ( X. croatii , X. decaryi , X. isaloensis , X. labatii , X. lewisiae , X. pinifolia , X. retinervis , X. setosa , X. spekei , X. tulearensis ) ranged from zero to 70%. Conclusions Fifteen newly developed microsatellite markers provide a toolkit for assessing population genetic parameters of X. dasylirioides in its unique island‐like habitats.
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