Premise of the study: Previously published and newly developed microsatellite primers for Taxus species were screened for their potential transfer to Taxus wallichiana and to characterize the genetic diversity and population structure of this species.
Methods and results: Twenty microsatellite markers that successfully PCR amplified showed polymorphisms when tested on T. wallichiana. Ten of these were obtained by cross-species amplification. The remaining 10 markers were developed in the current study. These markers were characterized on 58 individuals from two T. wallichiana populations from China. Overall, the number of alleles per locus ranged from two to twelve. No significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) was detected between the comparisons of these loci.
Conclusions: The polymorphic microsatellite markers screened in this study will be useful for further investigations of the conservation genetics of the endangered species T. wallichiana.