Development of EST-SSR markers in Barringtonia racemosa (Lecythidaceae) and cross-amplification in related species1

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite markers were identified and characterized to study the genetic diversity and structure of Barringtonia racemosa (Lecythidaceae). METHODS AND RESULTS Based on the transcriptome data of B. racemosa, 30 primer pairs were initially designed and tested, of which 15 were successfully amplified and displayed clear polymorphisms across the 43 individuals from three distant populations tested in the study. The results showed that the number of alleles per locus ranged from two to seven and the expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity per locus varied from 0 to 0.772 and from 0 to 0.933, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers described here will be useful for studying genetic diversity and structure of B. racemosa. Furthermore, all loci were successfully cross-amplified in B. asiatica and B. acutangula and will be of great value for genetic studies across this genus.