Isolation and characterization of twenty-seven polymorphic microsatellite loci in endangered Chinese paperbark maple, Acer griseum (Dicotyledoneae: Aceraceae)

• This is the first report on the isolation of microsatellites in Acer griseum.
• The characterization of 27 polymorphic loci was identified in this test.
• All loci will be useful for resources assessment and conservation of A. griseum or other maple species.

Acer griseum is an endangered species in the world, while little is known about its genetic diversity. 27 polymorphic microsatellite loci from A. griseum were isolated and characterized by using a biotinylated (AG)15-enriched genomic library method. The polymorphisms of these markers were determined on 88 individuals. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 14. The observed heterozygosity, expected heterozygosity and the polymorphism information content ranged from 0.384 to 0.897, 0.000 to 0.934, 0.436 to 0.877, respectively. It was found that 15 loci deviated significantly from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium after Bonferroni correction analysis and there was no significant genotypic linkage disequilibrium between pairs of loci. These microsatellites will be applied to further assessment of population genetic diversity and genetic resources conservation of A. griseum and other endangered maple species.