Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Thujopsis dolabrata var. hondai (Cupressaceae)

Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed for the endemic Japanese species Thujopsis dolabrata var. hondai for studies on forest ecology and tree breeding. Methods and Results: We characterized 10 dinucleotide microsatellite loci by screening primers developed using a simple sequence repeat-enriched library. The number of alleles per locus ranged from eight to 44 with an average of 20.3. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.326 to 0.854 and from 0.670 to 0.976, respectively. Conclusions: The development of these markers can be used to assess useful genetic information for ecological studies and tree breeding in T. dolabrata var. hondai.