Ackee (Blighia sapida, Sapindaceae) is a multipurpose fruit tree species of high economic importance, native to the Guinean forests of West Africa, and belongs to the same family as that of lychee (Litchi chinensis). In this study, a set of 12 primer pairs for simple sequence repeats (SSRs) previously developed for lychee has been evaluated for polymorphism in 16 ackee trees from different populations. Seven primer pairs have been found to be transferable, and four have revealed polymorphisms. However, the average number of alleles per locus has dropped from 4.9 for lychee to 3.7 for ackee. Characterization of the four polymorphic markers in 279 individuals belonging to14 different ackee populations from Benin has revealed that the numbers of alleles per locus range from two to 14 with a mean number of 5.8. The observed and expected heterozygosities range between 0.020 to 0.359 and 0.020 to 0.396, respectively.
Keywords: Blighia sapida; Litchi chinensis; Microsatellites; SSRs; Sapindaceae family; Transferability.