Isolation of 91 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the western mediterranean endemic Carex helodes (Cyperaceae)

摘要

Carex helodes Link (sect. Spirostachyae (Drejer) L. H. Bailey,\udCyperaceae) is a diploid, wind-pollinated, perennial herb with\uda minimum generation time of two years. The species is endemic\udto the western Mediterranean, being locally distributed\udin southern Portugal and southwestern Spain, and rare in\udnorthern Morocco ( Escudero et al., 2008a ). This sedge occurs\udin temporarily inundated acidic soils in open cork oak woodlands.\udDespite its well-characterized morphology, C. helodes\udhas been misidentifi ed as C. laevigata Sm. by some authors\ud(see Luceño et al., 2009 ). Recent cytotaxonomic and nuclearand\udplastid-based phylogenetic studies have revealed the\udmonophyly of C. helodes populations and its taxonomic independence\udwithin sect. Spirostachyae ( Escudero et al., 2008a ,\ud2008b ; Escudero and Luceño, 2009 ). Carex helodes is an endangered\udspecies in Spain because the extent of its severely\udfragmented occurrence is less than 100 km 2 , with continued\udloss of area and habitat quality ( Moreno, 2008 ; Bañares et al.,\ud2010 ).\udOur aim is to develop molecular markers for further studies of\udgene fl ow among and within populations. Nuclear microsatellites have been proven to be highly variable and very suitable to the\udstudy of recent gene fl ow between populations ( Ouborg et al.,\ud1999 ). To accomplish our task, we isolated and characterized\ud109 nuclear microsatellites