Development of novel EST-SSR markers for Ephedra sinica (Ephedraceae) by transcriptome database mining

Premise of the Study Ephedra sinica (Ephedraceae) is a gymnosperm shrub with a wide distribution across Central and Eastern Asia. It is widely cultivated as a medicinal plant, but its wild populations are monitored to determine whether protection is needed. Methods and Results Thirty-six microsatellite markers, including 11 polymorphic markers, were developed from E. distachya RNA-Seq data deposited in the National Center for Biotechology Information dbEST database. Among 100 genotyped E. sinica individuals originating from five different population groups, the allele number ranged from three to 22 per locus. Levels of observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.866 (average 0.176) and 0 to 0.876 (average 0.491), respectively. Allelic polymorphism information content ranged from 0.000 to 0.847 (average 0.333). Cross-species amplifications were successfully conducted with two related Ephedra species for all 11 di- or trinucleotide simple sequence repeats. Conclusions This study provides the first set of microsatellite markers for genetic monitoring and surveying of this medicinal plant.