ABSTRACT. Chromosome numbers, morphology, and nucleolus organizer region (NOR) locations are useful cytological characters for taxonomic and evolutionary studies. In this study, we provide the first cytogenetic analysis of Phyllomedusa bahiana and Phasmahyla spectabilis, and report new cytogenetic data on variation in NOR numbers and positions in Phyllomedusa rohdei and Phyllomedusa nordestina using conventional staining, AgNOR-banding, and 45S rDNA fluorescence in situ hybridization. All 4 species showed 2n = 26 chromosomes. P. spectabilis and P. bahiana had only 1 pair of NOR-carrying chromosomes. P. bahiana showed an NOR length polymorphism, and a rare homomorphic self-compatibility for both NOR lengths in anurans. Variation in the number of NOR-bearing chromosomes was found between the sampled populations of P. nordestina, ranging from 3 to 4. This study also clarified previous conflicting results concerning the occurrence of inter-and intrapopulation NOR variation in P. rohdei. The variation, confirmed by 45S

• Premise of the study: Ilex paraguariensis is a native tree species from Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay that is used in the production of beverages, medicines, and cosmetics. Primers flanking microsatellites were developed to investigate genetic parameters in the species.• Methods and Results: Using microsatellites cloned from an I. paraguariensis shotgun genomic library, 25 pairs of primers were designed and synthesized. Levels of polymorphism were evaluated in 24 individuals from two populations. Twenty loci were polymorphic, and an average of 4.8 and 4.5 alleles per locus were detected in the two populations, respectively. The mean observed heterozygosity was lower than the expected heterozygosity (0.54 vs. 0.60), indicating a departure from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and suggesting endogamy in both populations.• Conclusions: The reported set of markers is highly informative and constitutes a powerful tool for the development of genetic characterization studies in I. paraguariensis.

The study investigates the genetic diversity and the ability of genomic-wide selection to predict breeding genomic values of an E. benthamii trial. All individuals (115) of the breeding population were genotyped with 13 microsatellites loci. The diameter at breast height and total height were measured. The data analysis was carried using the softwares: Structure, Popgene, GDA, SPAGeDi1.5 and R. Predictive ability, heritability and standard errors markers were estimated using the RRblup method. The average number of alleles per locus was nine, and the polymorphism level for each locus varied from 3 to 17. The average expected heterozygosity (He=0.655) was very similar to observed heterozygosity and the estimated inbreeding (F = 0.02) was very low. These results corroborate that this population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the most loci. The trial genetic diversity is considered high, once the trial sampling demonstrated similar values to the natural populations. The group coancestry (0.085) demonstrate that the trees, in general, related at the half-sib level in this population. By using the Evanno’s method it is inferred that the individuals came from two original populations. The genetic distance calculated among the two groups was low ( =0.21). The heritability estimated from genomic selection for phenotypic traits was very low; however, the heritability estimated using the kinship coefficients was higher. The marker-based heritability using kinship coefficients probably is the more accurate than the one estimated using genomic selection, showing that the population samples can be used to establish breeding populations, hybrids and enriching the species germplasm bank.