Development of EST-SSR markers for Primula ovalifolia (Primulaceae) by transcriptome sequencing.

Premise of the study: Microsatellite primers were developed for Primula ovalifolia , a member of Primula section Petiolares (Primulaceae), to study the population genetics and species delimitation in this section.

Methods and Results: A total of 4753 markers were successfully designated from 5139 putative simple sequence repeat loci. We isolated 38 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat markers from 220 selected marker sites and tested polymorphism in three populations of P. ovalifolia , one of P. tardiflora , and one of P. epilosa . The number of alleles per locus ranged from one to 19, and the observed and expected levels of heterozygosity varied from 0 to 0.938 and 0 to 0.915, respectively. Most of the loci could be successfully cross-amplified in the two congeneric species.

Conclusions: These markers will be useful for further population genetic analysis and gene flow estimation of P. ovalifolia and its relatives.