Development of 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the endangered Seychelles palm Lodoicea maldivica (Arecaceae).

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: The evolutionarily and ecologically distinct coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica (Arecaceae) is endemic to two islands in the Seychelles. Before colonization of the islands by man, the endangered palm formed large monodominant stands, but its natural range is now restricted to four main populations and several patches of isolated individuals. Microsatellite markers were designed to investigate the genetic structure of the remaining natural populations of L. maldivica. METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed 12 polymorphic and three monomorphic microsatellite markers for this species, with a mean number of alleles per locus of 13.2 (range 5-21) and expected heterozygosity values ranging from 0.31-0.91 for the polymorphic loci. CONCLUSIONS: These markers enable us to study the patterns of genetic diversity, contemporary seed dispersal, and the fine-scale spatial genetic structure of this important conservation flagship species.

Is qualitative and quantitative metabarcoding of dung fauna biodiversity feasible?

In biodiversity assessments, especially of small-bodied organisms for which taxonomic expertise is lacking, identification by genetic barcoding may be a cost-effective and efficient alternative to traditional identification of species by morphology, ecology, and behavior. The authors tested the feasibility and accuracy of such an approach using dung insects of practical relevance in ecotoxicological assessments of veterinary pharmaceutical residues in the environment. They produced 8 known mixtures that varied in absolute and relative composition of small-bodied and large-bodied species to see whether mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 barcoding picks up all species qualitatively and quantitatively. As demonstrated before in other contexts, such metabarcoding of large numbers of dung insect specimens is principally possible using next-generation sequencing. The authors recovered most species in a sample (low type I error), at minimum permitting analysis of species richness. They obtained even quantitative responses reflecting the body size of the species, although the number of specimens was not well detected. The latter is problematic when calculating diversity indices. Nevertheless, the method yielded too many closely related false positives (type II error), thus generally overestimating species diversity and richness. These errors can be reduced by refining methods and data filtering, although this requires bioinformatics expertise often unavailable where such research is carried out. Identification by barcoding foremost hinges on a good reference database, which does not yet exist for dung organisms but would be worth developing for practical applications. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:1970-1977. © 2015 SETAC.

Fourteen polymorphic microsatellite markers for the threatened Arnica montana (Asteraceae).

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Microsatellite markers were developed to investigate population genetic structure in the threatened species Arnica montana. • METHODS AND RESULTS: Fourteen microsatellite markers with di-, tetra-, and hexanucleotide repeat motifs were developed for A. montana using 454 pyrosequencing without and with library-enrichment methods, resulting in 56,545 sequence reads and 14,467 sequence reads, respectively. All loci showed a high level of polymorphism, with allele numbers ranging from four to 11 in five individuals from five populations (25 samples) and an expected heterozygosity ranging from 0.192 to 0.648 across the loci. • CONCLUSIONS: This set of microsatellite markers is the first one described for A. montana and will facilitate conservation genetic applications as well as the understanding of phylogeographic patterns in this species.