CHARACTERIZATION OF 14 MICROSATELLITE LOCI IN A TROPICAL PALM, ATTALEA PHALERATA (ARECACEAE)

Premise of the study: We developed microsatellite primers for the widely distributed tropical palm Attalea phalerata for studies on the dispersal and spatial genetic structure of palm populations. Methods and Results: Fourteen di-, tri-, and tetra-nucleotide microsatellite primer pairs were identified. The number of alleles in the population tested ranged between 3 and 25, with a mean of 12.1. Ten microsatellite loci exhibited no significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium or presence of null alleles, and their combined probability of exclusion was 0.998. Conclusions: These microsatellite loci will be useful in parentage analysis and population genetics studies of Attalea phalerata.