TECHNICAL NOTE Development of microsatellite markers for Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick L. Jungmann • B. B. Z. Vigna • J. Paiva • A. C. B. Sousa • C. B. do Valle • P. R. Laborda • M. I. Zucchi • A. P. de Souza Received: 17 September 2009 / Accepted: 17 September 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract We describe the first panel of nuclear simple sequence repeats (SSRs) loci for Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick., a warmseason grass with facultative apomixis, variation in ploidy levels (6X–9X), and impor- tant forage grass species in the Tropics. Of 38 pairs of primers obtained by using an enriched-library methodol- ogy, 27 revealed polymorphism in 58 accessions of the Germplasm Collection of B. humidicola held at Embrapa Beef Cattle, Brazil. Eleven loci amplified in B. dictyone- ura, a closely related species with unclear taxonomic boundaries with B. humidicola. Transferability to other three Brachiaria species was also evaluated. The devel- oped microsatellites are potentially useful for genetic studies of B. humidicola, as well as phylogenetic evalua- tions, conservation and breeding applications. Keywords Urochloa humidicola  Koroviniagrass  SSRs  Taxonomy  Genetic diversity Brachiaria (Trin.) Griseb. is a large genus of grasses that belongs to the tribe Paniceae, in the subfamily Panicoideae of the family Poaceae. It contains about 100 species dis- tributed throughout the Tropics. Many aspects of taxo- nomic relationships among Brachiaria species and the related genera Urochloa, Eriochloa and Panicum remain unclear. Such taxonomic issues have been largely dis- cussed since Brachiaria was elevated to the category of genus by Grisebach (1853). Brachiaria humidicola (Rendle) Schweick. is an African perennial stoloniferous species that aposporous pseudog- amus apomixis is the predominant reproduction mode. Although apomixes is facultative, in most genotypes it prevails over sexuality. Sexual biotypes analyzed to date are hexaploides, while apomitics present ploidy varying from hexa to nanoploids. According to the W3TROPICOS, the nomenclatural database of the Missouri Botanical Garden, this species has been classified as Urochloa dictyoneura (Fig. & De Not.) Veldkamp, by Veldkamp (1996), Brachiaria dictyoneura subspecies humidicola (Rendle) Catasu ´s, by Catasu ´s Guerra (2001) and Urochloa humidicola (Rendle) Morrone & Zuloaga, by Zuloaga and Morrone (2003). In fact, B. humidicola (Rendle) Schweick. is closely related to B. dictyoneura (Fig. & De Not.) Stap. and, at times, the identification of these two species is not unequivocal. The disputable taxonomic allocation of B. humidicola is, in part, a consequence of taxonomic studies based only on morphological descriptors. Based on internal transcribed spacer sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS), Gonzalez and Morton (2005) reviewed taxonomic relationships among Brachiaria, Eriochloa, Urochloa, including U. humidicola within the classification of Morrone and Zuloaga (1992), and six other Paniceae species. Further investigations using markers spread across the genome have not been reported. L. Jungmann  C. B. do Valle Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, EMBRAPA Beef Cattle, CP 154, Campo Grande, MS CEP 79002-970, Brazil B. B. Z. Vigna  J. Paiva  A. C. B. Sousa  P. R. Laborda  A. P. de Souza (&) Center for Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), CP 6010, Campinas, SP CEP 13.083-970, Brazil e-mail: anete@unicamp.br M. I. Zucchi Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC), CP 28, Campinas, SP CEP 13.012-970, Brazil A. P. de Souza Biology Institute, Plant Biology Department, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), CP 6109, Campinas, SP CEP 13083-970, Brazil 123 Conservation Genet Resour DOI 10.1007/s12686-009-9111-y