Premise of the study: Polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for the pine-infecting fungus, Grosmannia alacris.
Methods and results: Sixteen microsatellite markers were developed by using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR)-PCRs and 454 sequencing methods. Seven of these markers showed polymorphisms for a South African population of G. alacris, and 13 markers showed polymorphism when European isolates were included. Most of the primer pairs also amplified four closely related species: G. serpens, Leptographium gibbsii, L. castellanum, and L. yamaokae.
Conclusions: These new markers will be useful for population studies of G. alacris and other species in the G. serpens complex.