Development and characterization of microsatellite primers in Geranium carolinianum (Geraniaceae) with 454 sequencing.

Abstract

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite primers were developed for Geranium carolinanum, a North American winter annual herb, for use in population genetic analyses.• Methods and Results: Genomic DNA enriched for repeat-containing fragments was sequenced on the Roche 454 Titanium platform, resulting in 470 primer pairs developed from 1115 microsatellite-containing sequences. A subset of 37 primer pairs was screened for polymorphism across three native and three invasive populations. We identified four monomorphic and eight polymorphic loci. Polymorphic loci contained between two and seven alleles per locus, and mean within-population expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.100 to 0.290. Within populations, observed heterozygosity for individual loci ranged from zero to 0.857, and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.046 to 0.559.• Conclusions: These microsatellite markers will be useful for future studies of genetic diversity, structure, and mating systems across the geographic range of G. carolinianum, and may be transferable to other closely related species.