Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers were developed for the invasive species Mikania micrantha to investigate its invasion history. Transcriptome sequencing projects offer a potential source for the development of new markers.
Methods and results: Sixteen polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers derived from ESTs were identified and screened in 36 samples of M. micrantha. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to four, with an average of 2.7 alleles per locus. The expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.7754 and 0 to 0.8333, respectively.
Conclusions: These EST-SSR markers may be useful for further investigation of the population genetics of M. micrantha as additional tools to trace its invasion history.