Transferability of Microsatellite Markers Among Myrtaceae Species and Their use to Obtain Population Genetics Data to Help the Conservation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Myrtaceae species play an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest. However, most species of this biome have not been studied. In this work we examined whether microsatellite markers developed for other Myrtaceae species are useful in genetic studies of native species of the Atlantic Forest. We evaluated the transferability of 21 microsatellite markers derived from Eucalyptus sp., Eugenia uniflora, and Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel to eight Atlantic Forest species (Campomanesia xanthocarpa (guabiroba do mato), Campomanesia adamantium, Eugenia uniflora (surinam cherry), Eugenia involucrata (cherry of the Rio Grande), Myrcianthes pungens (guabiju), Plinia cauliflora (jaboticaba), Psidium guajava (guava), and Psidium sp.(araçá) and the utility of the transferred markers in obtaining genetic data from Eugenia uniflora. The transferability of microsatellite primers pairs was high (>52%) in seven of the eight species studied. In three populations of E. uniflora, the transferred primers amplified the same average number of alleles, and the same expected heterozygosity was obtained with species-specific primers. The genetic parameters FIS, Shannon diversity, genetic distance of Nei, FST and FIT, AMOVA, and the PCoA were calculated using data from four transferred microsatellites. Results were similar to those obtained using species-specific primers. Both datasets (from transferred and species-specific primers) indicated that E. uniflora populations of the Atlantic Forest are unstructured and have high genetic diversity. The results of our study indicate that transferability of microsatellite markers is an economic and powerful way to obtain genetic information of Myrtaceae species of the Atlantic Forest, and consequently, will aid in the conservation of these species and the biome.

Research Article Transferability of heterologous microsatellite loci between species of Euterpe genus

“…However, the use of this marker requires the previous development of loci, which do not exist for E. precatoria, and this process is laborious and expensive (Gupta et al, 2016). The conservation of microsatellite sites among related species makes it possible to transfer them to other species (Guidugli et al, 2010;Santos et al, 2011, Carmo et al, 2015, Azêvedo et al, 2016Fagundes et al, 2016). To date, 18 SSR loci have been developed for Euterpe edulis, seven of which have been shown to be amplifiable and polymorphic for E. oleracea (Gaiotto et al, 2001;Oliveira et al, 2010).…”

Development and characterization of microsatellite markers in Campomanesia adamantium, a native plant of the Cerrado ecoregions of South America

“…Recent research has validated the transferability of microsatellite markers from closely related species of C. adamantium , including expressed sequence tag (EST)–derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from Eucalyptus L'Hér. (Myrtaceae) (Miranda et al., ; Crispim et al., ) and SSR primers from Eucalyptus spp., Eugenia uniflora L., and Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel (Fagundes et al., ). Analysis of genetic diversity using transferable molecular markers only reflects polymorphisms in conserved genomic regions among congeneric species or genera from the same family; however, transferable microsatellite markers from other species may be limited in the level of genetic diversity they can reveal in the target species (Queirós et al., ).…”

“…and SSR primers from Eucalyptus spp., Eugenia uniflora L., and Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel (Fagundes et al, 2016). Analysis of genetic diversity using transferable molecular markers only reflects polymorphisms in conserved genomic regions among congeneric species or genera from the same family; however, transferable microsatellite markers from other species may be limited in the level of genetic diversity they can reveal in the target species (Queirós et al, 2015).…”

Relationship between Genetic Variability and Land Use and Land Cover in Populations of Campomanesia adamantium (Myrtaceae)

“…The development of specific primers for microsatellite locus amplification is an expensive and time-consuming process involving cloning and sequencing of the DNA fragments [15]. However, transferability of microsatellite primers between species in the same genus or between different genera is possible [16].…”