Microsatellite Markers Establishment for African Elemi (Canarium schweinfurthii Engl., Burseraceae), a Africa Prominent Wild Fruit-Bearing Forest Tree

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> <bold>Premise of the study :</bold> Commonly known as Aiélé (in French) or African Elemi (in English), <italic>Canarium schweinfurthii</italic> (Burseraceae) is an important and remarkable large native food tree of Africa. This species is highly valued by woodworkers for its superior timber quality and by rural communities for its fruits and medicinal properties. Despite its socio-economic and cultural importance, the distribution of its genetic diversity, a key factor for its conservation, has never been studied or documented. The aim of this work is to develop and make available molecular markers for assessing the genetic diversity and population structure of the African Elemi, which are necessary information tools for its conservation and sustainable management. <bold>Methods and results</bold> In this context, 18,079 nuclear microsatellite markers extracted from Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) of a genomic library were validated and characterized. Thirteen markers were polymorphic and were further tested on 98 individuals from four populations across three African countries (Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso). The number of alleles per locus varied from 6 to 29, with an average of 16.54 ± 7.81. Within populations, the expected mean heterozygosity (<italic>H</italic>_E) ranged from 0.500 to 0.805 depending on the loci, with an average of 0.705 ± 0.140. Meanwhile, observed mean heterozygosity (<italic>H</italic>_O) varied from 0.560 to 0.684, averaging 0.643 ± 0.060 across loci. The mean <italic>F</italic>_IS coefficient per population for each locus ranged from 0.093 to 0.270, with an average of 0.165 ± 0.070. <bold>Conclusions</bold> Given their high polymorphism, the 13 nuclear microsatellite markers developed here can be utilized to study gene flow, the spatial distribution of genetic diversity, and population structure in <italic>C. schweinfurthii</italic> across Africa, as well as to contribute to its conservation.