Development of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to study diversity in the herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora)

The herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is a well-known herbaceous flowering plant that yields high medicinal and economic value in Korea and China. In this study, 14 novel polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed and characterized through the construction of a simple sequence repeat (SSR)-enriched library from genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of P. lactiflora. In total, 103 alleles across 85 P. lactiflora accessions were detected, with an average of 7.4 alleles per locus. The values of the major allele frequency, genetic diversity, and polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.39 to 0.88 (mean = 0.61), 0.21 to 0.71 (mean = 0.50), and 0.19 to 0.67 (mean = 0.43), respectively. The mean genetic distance among the P. lactiflora accessions was 0.5559, indicating wide variation. These new SSR markers will be useful tools for assessing genetic diversity, understanding population structure, identifying genotypes, and breeding of P. lactiflora.