The genus Arachis (Fabaceae) native to South America, contains 80 species divided into nine sections, three of which contain species of special economic importance such as the cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea), belonging to the section Arachis, and some perennial forage species from sections Caulorrhizae and Rhizomatosae. We used microsatellite markers to assay genetic variability among 77 accessions of four species from section Rhizomatosae, the diploid Arachis burkartii (2n = 2x = 20) and the tetraploid Arachis glabrata, Arachis pseudovillosa and Arachis nitida (2n = 4x = 40). A total of 249 alleles were found in the fifteen loci analyzed and a high degree of intra and interspecific polymorphism was detected. The lowest intraspecific variation occurred in Arachis burkartii, while the smallest estimated interspecific value was between A. nitida and A. pseudovillosa and the largest was between A. burkartii and A. nitida. High observed heterozygosity was detected in A. glabrata. The diploid accessions grouped in one cluster and the tetraploid accessions in another. It was possible to distinguish all 77 accessions and the genetic distance between accessions could not be correlated with geographic origin.

The Arachis section is the most important of the nine sections of the genus Arachis because it includes the cultivated peanut, Arachis hypogaea. The genetic improvement of A. hypogaea using wild relatives is at an early stage of development in spite of their potential as sources of genes, including those for disease and pests resistance, that are not found in the A. hypogaea primary gene pool. Section Arachis species germplasm has been collected and maintained in gene banks and its use and effective conservation depends on our knowledge of the genetic variability contained in this material. Microsatellites are routinely used for the analysis of genetic variability because they are highly polymorphic and codominant. The objective of this study was to evaluate the transferability of microsatellite primers and the assay of genetic variability between and within the germplasm of some species of the Arachis section. Fourteen microsatellite loci developed for three different species of Arachis were analyzed and 11 (78%) were found to be polymorphic. All loci had transferability to all the species analyzed. The polymorphic loci were very informative, with expected heterozygosity per locus ranging from 0.70 to 0.94. In general, the germplasm analyzed showed wide genetic variation.

The genus Arachis currently comprises 69 described species, some of which have potential and real value as human and animal foods. These Arachis species have been collected and maintained in germplasm banks to provide material that can be used as sources of genes in breeding programs and for the selection of new cultivars. One of the principal objectives of germplasm conservation is the evaluation of genetic variability, which is best conducted using molecular markers. We investigated the use of heterologous primers to amplify microsatellite loci that could be used to evaluate genetic variability in Arachis germplasm. Fifteen microsatellite primer pairs were tested in 76 accessions of 34 species from the nine Arachis sections. The data indicated that heterologous primers were very useful in Arachis since they had high transferability among the species (91%) and allowed the amplification of very polymorphic putative loci, which allowed both the characterization of most accessions and to make inferences about the mating systems of some species analyzed. Our data also revealed that the germplasm analyzed showed high variability, even when represented by few accessions.