Characterization of Novel Microsatellite Loci for Primula poissonii (Primulaceae) Using High-Throughput Sequencing Technology

Primula poissonii (Primulaceae) is a perennial herb, widely distributed in the Hengduan Mountain region of Southwest China. In this study, Roche 454 pyrosequencing was used to isolate microsatellite markers. A total of 4528 unique sequences were identified from 68,070 unique reads. Of these, eighty-seven microsatellite loci were screened for utility using two criteria: successful PCR amplification and variation of these loci within three wild P. poissonii populations. Twenty loci were successfully amplified and exhibited polymorphic alleles. The number of observed alleles ranged from 1 to 9 with an average of 3.5. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.087 to 1.000 and from 0.124 to 0.828, respectively. Among these SSR loci, only the P69 locus could not be cross-amplified successfully in two closely related species P. wilsonii and P. anisodora. The microsatellite loci developed in this study will be useful for studying genetic diversity and speciation events between P. poissonii and closely related Primula species.