Development of microsatellite loci in Mediterranean sarsaparilla (; Smilacaceae) using transcriptome data.

Premise Of The Study: Although several microsatellite markers of (Smilacaceae) have been reported in a previous study, due to universality issues in cross-population amplification, we have newly developed microsatellite markers for based on transcriptome data to further investigate gene flow and genetic structure of its circum-Mediterranean, East African, and South Asian populations.

Methods And Results: A total of 4854 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer pairs were designed from 99,193 contigs acquired from public transcriptome data of . Forty-six microsatellite loci were selected for further genotyping in 12 populations. The number of alleles varied from three to 28, and 93.5% of the developed microsatellite markers could be cross-amplified in least one of three congeneric species.

Conclusions: The SSR markers developed in this study will facilitate further studies on genetic diversity and phylogeographic patterns of in intercontinental geographical scales.