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

Abstract

Carex helodes Link (sect. Spirostachyae (Drejer) L. H. Bailey, Cyperaceae) is a diploid, wind-pollinated, perennial herb with a minimum generation time of two years. The species is endemic to the western Mediterranean, being locally distributed in southern Portugal and southwestern Spain, and rare in northern Morocco ( Escudero et al., 2008a ). This sedge occurs in temporarily inundated acidic soils in open cork oak woodlands. Despite its well-characterized morphology, C. helodes has been misidentifi ed as C. laevigata Sm. by some authors (see Luceño et al., 2009 ). Recent cytotaxonomic and nuclearand plastid-based phylogenetic studies have revealed the monophyly of C. helodes populations and its taxonomic independence within sect. Spirostachyae ( Escudero et al., 2008a , 2008b ; Escudero and Luceño, 2009 ). Carex helodes is an endangered species in Spain because the extent of its severely fragmented occurrence is less than 100 km 2 , with continued loss of area and habitat quality ( Moreno, 2008 ; Bañares et al., 2010 ). Our aim is to develop molecular markers for further studies of gene fl ow among and within populations. Nuclear microsatellites have been proven to be highly variable and very suitable to the study of recent gene fl ow between populations ( Ouborg et al., 1999 ). To accomplish our task, we isolated and characterized 109 nuclear microsatellites