Premise: Afzelia africana (Fabaceae) is a valuable, internationally vulnerable tree species in tropical Africa. The development of specific simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci is necessary for population genetic studies in this tree species and its closest relatives.
Methods and results: Fifteen new polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for A. africana using Illumina next-generation sequencing. We tested the polymorphism of the 15 loci in three populations in Benin, West Africa. The number of expressed alleles per locus varied from one to 12. The levels of observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.100 to 1.000 and from 0.095 to 0.882, respectively. Most markers successfully amplified in the closely related species A. quanzensis and A. bipindensis, but less so in A. bipindensis.
Conclusions: Because of their cross-amplification ability, these newly developed loci will serve as useful tools for future molecular analyses on A. africana and related species.
Keywords: Afzelia africana; Fabaceae; West Africa; conservation genetics; simple sequence repeat (SSR); sustainable management.