Development of 14 EST-SSRs for Betula maximowicziana and their applicability to related species

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers were developed for Betula maximowicziana using 2698 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from the NCBI database. Out of 112 designed primer pairs, 54 showed clear PCR amplification and 14 of these revealed polymorphism in eight individuals sampled across the species' range. The number of alleles detected and the expected heterozygosity ranged from 1 to 3 and 0.000 to 0.570, respectively, when these 14 loci were examined in 49 individuals from a single population. In the cross species transferability test, eight of the 14 loci were also polymorphic in all four of the diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid Betula species examined. These results showed high transferability of the developed EST-SSRs and that these markers are likely to be useful in studies of the population genetics of species in the genus Betula.