Abstract
Mimusops balata (Sapotaceae) is an endemic tree species from La Réunion and Mauritius. Like many species growing in lowland forests in La Réunion, it has suffered from human disturbances. We developed twelve microsatellite markers for M. balata and tested cross-amplification in five other Mimusops species to have powerful tools for genetic diversity studies. Genotyping peaks were of very low quality for two loci and were consequently abandoned for the genetic diversity analyses. Ten microsatellite loci were tested on 34 individuals of M. balata from two natural populations. The number of alleles per locus ranged from one to seven. The observed and expected heterozygosity levels varied from 0.000 to 0.823, and from 0.000 to 0.812 respectively. Two loci deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The presence of null alleles was detected for one of these two loci. Nine to ten loci cross-amplified reliably in Mauritian species, for the other three species, four to six loci show successful amplifications. These polymorphic microsatellite markers are now available for population genetic investigations in Mimusops species aiming to establish accurate guidelines for conservation managers.
Highlights
La Réunion Island belongs to one of the thirty-four global biodiversity hotspots, where high concentration of endemism is undergoing severe loss of habitats [1]
Twelve potential markers developed through 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing were chosen to build a single primer mix for polymorphism analyses in the species M. balata
Genotyping peaks for the loci MbCIR26 and MbCIR15 were of low quality; allele assignment was very difficult
Summary
La Réunion Island belongs to one of the thirty-four global biodiversity hotspots, where high concentration of endemism is undergoing severe loss of habitats [1]. Lowland forests have been affected by anthropogenic disturbances like habitat destruction, forest fragmentation and logging. (Sapotaceae) is one of the dominant endemic canopy trees that evolved in lowland forests of Mauritius and La Réunion. Like most of Sapotaceae species occurring on the Mascarene Islands, M. balata has an important keystone structure role in these forests. M. balata remained relatively abundant in its habitat [4], investigating its genetic diversity and differentiation are essential to ensure the long-term survival of this species and its functional role in its ecosystem.
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