Development and Characterization of 15 Novel Genomic SSRs for .

The genus is of particular interest to horticulturalists, phylogeneticists, and biogeographers. Despite its popularity, there are few existing molecular markers to investigate genetic diversity in this large genus, which includes over 160 species. There are also few polymorphic molecular tools that can delineate closely related species within the genus. , a member of the subclade and one of the centers of diversity for , was selected for DNA sequencing and development of genomic simple sequence repeats (gSSRs). In this study, 15 polymorphic gSSRs were developed and characterized for a collection of 19 samples. Number of alleles per locus ranged from two- to- eight and nine loci had four or more alleles. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.84 and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.10 to 0.80 for the 15 loci. Shannon diversity index values across these loci ranged from 0.21 to 1.62. The markers developed in this study add to the existing molecular toolkit for the genus and will be used in future studies investigating cross-transferability, genetic variation, and species and cultivar delimitation in the genus and closely allied genera in the Adoxaceae and Caprifoliaceae.