Isolation and characterization of thirteen microsatellite loci in four diploid species of Ranunculus cantonensis polyploid complex

Ranunculus is a cosmopolitan genus, and the evolution of the genus has been influenced by both polyploidy and hybridization. The interactions between some species of Ranunculus are regarded as a natural model system for studying hybridization. Four diploid species of the R. cantoniensis polyploid complex have relatively little reproductive isolation from each other, and they form a complicated hybrid pool in a multispecies hybrid zone. To clarify the genetic structure and spatiotemporal dynamics of gene flow in this multispecies hybrid zone, 13 polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated from R. silerifolius var. dolicanthus. The loci's characteristics were observed in 30 individuals. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 20, and the PIC values ranged from 0.350 to 0.914. Eleven loci were significantly biased from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The 13 microsatellite loci were shown to be successfully amplified in three other related species. These polymorphic microsatellites will be powerful molecular tools for further studies of the Ranunculus genetic structure and gene flow.