Premise of the study: Microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized for use in population genetic studies of Plathymenia reticulata (Fabaceae), a tropical tree widespread in the Atlantic Forest and cerrado biomes of South America.
Methods and results: Nine microsatellite markers were developed using a simple sequence repeat-enriched library. Polymorphism was analyzed in 51 individuals from two populations. All loci were polymorphic, with the number of alleles per loci ranging from five to 15 (mean number of alleles: 10.22). Observed and expected heterozygosities per loci and population ranged from 0.313 to 1.000 and 0.280 to 0.869, respectively.
Conclusions: These highly informative loci are potentially useful to estimate population genetic structure and to understand evolutionary processes and taxonomy of the species.