Isolation and characterization of 23 microsatellite loci in Astragalus camptodontus (Leguminosae), a traditional medicinal plant in Yunnan province

Astragalus camptodontus is a traditional medicinal plant in Yunnan province, and it is used as one of substitutes for the Chinese medicine Astragali radix, namely “Huangqi”. Twenty-three microsatellite loci were developed from its nuclear genome using a fast isolation protocol by amplified fragment length polymorphism of sequences containing repeats (FIASCO). Two wild populations collected from Northwest Yunnan were used to assess polymorphism of each locus. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 5 with a mean of 4.2. Values for HO and HE ranged from 0.042 to 0.875 and from 0.254 to 0.793, with average of 0.403 and 0.616, respectively. These polymorphic loci will facilitate further studies on genetic diversity, population structure and gene flow of A. camptodontus and its allied species.