Premise of the study: Diuris basaltica (Orchidaceae) is an endangered forb on the Victorian grasslands and has many close relatives. Microsatellite markers have been developed to facilitate assessment of population structure within D. basaltica and among related taxa within the species complex. •
Methods and results: Twenty-five microsatellite markers (13 polymorphic and 12 monomorphic) were developed from D. basaltica using 454 pyrosequencing, and all primer pairs were amplified in D. gregaria and D. chryseopsis. For the set of polymorphic markers, the number of alleles per locus ranged from one to 10, two to nine, and two to 18 for D. basaltica, D. gregaria, and D. chryseopsis, respectively. The expected and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.18 to 0.95 and 0.14 to 0.86, respectively. •
Conclusions: The microsatellite markers developed in this study can be used to analyze the population genetic structure of D. basaltica and other Diuris species.
Keywords: Diuris species; conservation; orchid; polyploidy.