Abstract: | Cagaita (Eugenia dysenterica) is a widespread plant found in the Brazilian cerrado. Its fruit is used for popular consumption and for industrial purposes. A battery of 346 primer pairs developed for Eucalyptus spp. was tested on cagaita. Only 10 primer pairs were found to be transferable between the two species. Using a polyacrilamide gel, an average of 10.4 alleles per locus was detected, in a sample of 116 individuals from 10 natural populations of cagaita. Seven polymorphic loci allowed estimation of genetic parameters, including expected average heterozigosity HE = 0.442, diversity among populations, RST = 0.268 and gene flow Nm = 0.680. |