Microsatellites are important for forest genetic resources conservation in Brazilian biomes

ABSTRACT

Microsatellites are short sequence repeats that make up the genomes of eukaryotes and prokaryotes. They are of great importance as DNA markers for studies in several fields of genetics. In the present review, we searched for studies published in the five years period of 2017 to 2021 regarding the use of microsatellites in studies with forest tree species from the Brazilian biomes, in order to examine the importance of these markers for forest resources conservation. We searched scientific papers in journals indexed on the Scopus and Web of Science databases. There were found 38 peer reviewed articles that used microsatellites in the Brazilian biomes. The Atlantic Forest was the biome with more studies (35.9 %) and most of the studies were published in 2018 (34.2 %). In addition, most of the studied species belonged to the Fabaceae family (34.2 %). The conclusions and recommendations made in these studies ratify the great contribution of microsatellite markers in the conservation of native forest species in Brazilian biomes.

Keywords:
Brazilian ecosystems; genetic diversity; genetic structure; forest conservation; SSR markers