Isolation and characterization of nuclear microsatellite loci in the tropical arboreal palm Oenocarpus bacaba (Arecaceae)

Abstract Studies of mating patterns are needed to determine how habitat heterogeneity created by deforestation influences tropical plant populations. Eight microsatellite loci were isolated with a subtractive hybridization method for Oenocarpus bacaba (Arecaceae), a subcanopy palm tree at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, near Manaus, Brazil. Additionally, two heterospecific loci originally developed for the heart palm Euterpe edulis were shown to be variable. Loci averaged 9.6 alleles per locus. Five loci did not fit Hardy-Weinberg expectations with significant deficits of heterozygous genotypes consistent with null alleles. Many loci had high average probabilities of paternity exclusion.