Development and characterization of microsatellite primers in the endangered Mediterranean shrub Ziziphus lotus (Rhamnaceae)

Abstract

Premise of the study:Microsatellite primers were developed to characterize and evaluate patterns of genetic diversity and structure in the endangered Mediterranean shrub Ziziphus lotus (Rhamnaceae).Methods and Results:Twenty microsatellite primers were developed for Z. lotus, of which 14 were polymorphic. We evaluated microsatellite polymorphism in 97 specimens from 18 Spanish and seven Moroccan populations. Between two and eight alleles were found per locus, and the average number of alleles was 5.54. Observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.08 to 0.90 and from 0.08 to 0.82, respectively. Nine of these primers also amplified microsatellite loci in Z. jujuba.Conclusions:The microsatellite markers described here will be useful in studies on genetic variation, population genetic structure, and gene flow in the fragmented habitat of this species. These markers are a valuable resource for designing appropriate conservation measures for the species in the Mediterranean range.

GENETIC DIVERSITY OF FRUITS IN WILD JUJUBE (Ziziphus lotus L. DESF.) NATURAL POPULATIONS FROM ALGERIA

“…Molecular markers are widely used to assess genetic diversity and to study the relationships among genotypes and populations of many species. To study the genetic diversity of the genus Ziziphus, the ISSR, RADP, SSR, SRAP markers have been widely used on Ziziphus spina-christi (Alansi et al, 2016;Moustafa et al 2016), Ziziphus mauritiana (Singh et al 2007;Singh et al 2014), Ziziphus jujuba (Li et al 2010;Ma et al 2011;Liu et al 2014;Zhang et al 2015;) and Ziziphus lotus (González-Robles et al 2016). Our work is the first to study the molecular diversity between natural populations of Ziziphus lotus L. Desf through several environments in Algeria and the second in the world.…”

“…However, there is little information available regarding the diversity of wild jujube across several environments in the world (González-Robles et al 2016;Boussaid et al 2018). For this purpose, a comparative study of several populations of wild jujube can give an overview of the morphological and molecular variations existing in this species.…”

Extensive pollen‐mediated gene flow across intensively managed landscapes in an insect‐pollinated shrub native to semiarid habitats

“…The overall sample sizes used in this study per site to characterize mating and gene flow patterns S2, González-Robles et al, 2016). Additionally, the quality of the scoring was checked independently by two people to minimize any possible genotyping errors.…”

“…Crosses indicate maternal trees and black dots show candidate fathers within each study site: El Ejido (a); Níjar (b); and La Tercia (c). Red crosses represent the main pollen donors at each site according our results zlo68, zlo71, zlo73, zlo76, zlo77, zlo79, zlo80, zlo86, zlo87 and zlo88;seeGonzález-Robles et al, 2016; for details on SSRs and multiplex conditions). Four fluorescent dyes (5-HEX, 56-FAM, ATTO565 and ATTO550) were used to 5-end label the forward primer of each locus(González-Robles et al, 2016).…”

“…Red crosses represent the main pollen donors at each site according our results zlo68, zlo71, zlo73, zlo76, zlo77, zlo79, zlo80, zlo86, zlo87 and zlo88;seeGonzález-Robles et al, 2016; for details on SSRs and multiplex conditions). Four fluorescent dyes (5-HEX, 56-FAM, ATTO565 and ATTO550) were used to 5-end label the forward primer of each locus(González-Robles et al, 2016). DNA extraction and PCR amplifications were performed using the methods and conditions described inGonzález-Robles et al (2016).…”