Abstract
The Amazon molly Poecilia formosa is a model system forstudying the evolution of sex (Turner 1980; Schartl 1995)and skin cancer development (Schartl et al. 1997). Only veryfew variable microsatellites are known for this species. Mi-crosatellites, however, have already proven to be very usefultools for diverse genetic analyses (Lampert et al. 2005). Herewe report the results of cross-amplification of 63 microsatel-lite loci, originally developed for Xiphophorus, tested in theAmazon molly and its two parental species P. mexicana andP. latipinna. Eight microsatellite loci were found to be poly-morphic. Sixteen primers allowed species identification an deight primers allowed diagnosis of different ploidy levels inP. formosa. These microsatellites will be useful to gain newinsights into the population structures, clonal variability andreproductive biology of a mixed species reproductive com-plex, and also into the genetic mechanism underlying cancerformation.P. formosa, the Amazon molly, is a small freshwa-ter fish species that occurs in the northeastern part ofMexico and extends into the USA (Texas). It is an all-female species and was the first vertebrate discovered toreproduce clonally (Hubbs and Hubbs 1932). Its repro-ductive mode is gynogenesis:females produce unreducedeggs, but need sperm from a closely related sexual speciesto trigger the onset of oocyte development. The male’s
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