Development of 15 SSR polymorphic markers for the endangered Ameroglossum pernambucense Eb. Fischer, S. Vogel & A. V. Lopes (Scrophulariaceae), and cross-transferability in congeneric taxa

Abstract

Ameroglossum (Scrophulariaceae) is an endemic genus from northeastern Brazil patchily distributed in granitic rock outcrops (inselbergs) with two species described: the endangered A. pernambucense Eb. Fischer, S. Vogel & A. V. Lopes and the narrow endemic A. manoel-felixii L. P. Felix & E. M. Almeida. We developed 15 polymorphic nuclear microsatellite markers for A. pernambucense using pyrosequencing and successfully cross-amplified 14 of these loci in A. manoel-felixii and a taxonomically uncertain taxon (a putative Ameroglossum hybrid). The number of alleles per loci ranged from 2 to 6, 2 to 5 and 2 to 6 in the examined populations of A. pernambucense, A. manoel-felixii and the putative hybrid, respectively. No significant linkage disequilibrium was detected, and significant deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium was found in some loci, likely reflecting inbreeding and population structure across inselbergs. We discuss the use of these SSR markers in conservation and microevolutionary studies in Ameroglossum, as well as in the investigation of the importance of pollen-mediated gene flow in keeping genetic diversity in rare species with patchily distributed populations using progeny arrays.