Microsatellite loci for Orthophytum ophiuroides (Bromelioideae, Bromeliaceae) species adapted to neotropical rock outcrops

Abstract

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite primers were developed for Orthophytum ophiuroides, a rupicolous bromeliad species endemic to neotropical rocky fields. These microsatellite loci will be used to investigate population differentiation and species cohesion in such fragmented environments. The loci were tested for cross-amplification in related bromeliad species.• Methods and Results: Eleven polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated and characterized from an enriched library of O. ophiuroides. The loci were tested on 42 individuals from two populations of this species. The number of alleles per locus ranged from three to nine and the expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.167 to 0.870 and from 0.369 to 0.958, respectively. Seven loci successfully amplified in other related bromeliad species.• Conclusions: Our results suggest that the microsatellite loci developed here will be useful to assess genetic diversity and gene flow in O. ophiuroides for the investigation of population differentiation and species cohesion in neotropical mountainous habitats.

Cross-amplification of nuclear microsatellite markers in two species of Cryptanthus Otto & A. Dietr. (Bromeliaceae)

“…The cross-amplification was moderate in both Cryptanthus species, about 64% of the loci tested were amplified, and about 35% of the loci tested were polymorphic. The cross-amplification in the three subfamilies tested confirms that the loci can be transferred between the different Cross-amplification of nuclear microsatellite markers in two species of Cryptanthus Otto… species from different subfamilies of Bromeliaceae (Palma-Silva et al 2007;Paggi et al 2008;Krapp et al 2012;Zanella et al 2012;Goetze et al 2013;Lavor et al 2013;Aoki-Gonçalves et al 2014;Neri et al 2015).…”

“…Previous studies involving the development and crossamplification of SSRs markers in Bromeliaceae have primarily focused on species of the Tillandsioideae (Boneh et al 2003;Palma-Silva et al 2007;Lavor et al 2013;Neri et al 2015) and Pitcairnioideae subfamilies (Sarthou et al 2003;Paggi et al 2008;Krapp et al 2012;Miranda et al 2012;Wöhrmann et al 2012Wöhrmann et al , 2013Zanella et al 2012;Hmeljevski et al 2013). Few studies have focused on the species in the subfamily Bromelioideae (Goetze et al 2013;Krapp et al 2013;Aoki-Gonçalves et al 2014). There are no published SSRs markers developed specifically for the genus Cryptanthus, only studies with crossamplification of chloroplast microsatellite markers, where primers specifically developed for Dyckia marnier-lapostollei L.B.Sm.…”

Genetic diversity of Bromeliaceae species from the Atlantic Forest

“…Therefore, research on population genetic diversity is essential to provide information on the risk of species extinction and to design effective conservation strategies (Frankham et al, 2002). In this context, molecular markers are widely used for studying genetic variability (Cavallari et al, 2006;Barbará et al, 2007Barbará et al, , 2009Lavor et al, 2014;Goetze et al, 2015), and several markers have been developed for Bromeliaceae: Pitcairnia (Sarthou et al, 2003;Paggi et al, 2008), Alcantarea , Dyckia (Zanella et al, 2012), Encholirium (Hmeljevski et al, 2013), Orthophytum (Aoki-Gonçalves et al, 2014), and recently, Vriesea (Neri et al, 2015).…”