DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF EST-SSR MARKERS IN THE CHINESE MEDICINAL PLANT CALLERYA SPECIOSA (FABACEAE)

Premise of the study: The first microsatellite primers were developed for Callerya speciosa, an important traditional medicinal plant with island-mainland distributions in China, to further investigate its genetic variability and population structure. Methods and Results: The microsatellite-containing sequences were selected from a cDNA library of C. speciosa. In total, 58 primer pairs were designed, and 25 of the corresponding loci showed clear amplification. Polymorphisms were assessed in two different natural populations. The mean number of alleles per locus ranged from two to nine. Observed and expected heterozygosity per loci ranged from 0.067 to 0.938 and 0.064 to 0.836, respectively. One out of 25 loci showed departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations in both populations, and three pairs of loci showed significant linkage disequilibrium after Bonferroni correction. Conclusions: These microsatellite markers will be useful tools for genetic and conservation studies and to understand the evolutionary processes in Callerya species.