Transferability of Microsatellite Markers across Eleven Species of Magnolia L.

The genus Magnolia (Magnoliaceae) comprises more than 130 species distributed predominantly in temperate and tropical regions in Southeast Asia and is valued worldwide for its ornamental traits as well as for timber and medicinal products, and in trade. Despite their favored status, many species of Magnolia are faced with threats from logging, agricultural land use, development, and collection, and are at risk of extinction. Conservation of these species through habitat preservation and in ex situ collections is needed to prevent extinction. To provide a tool for conservation of Magnolia species, microsatellite markers developed previously for Magnolia ashei were tested in 10 other species of Magnolia to determine their transferability across species. Of the 64 primer pairs tested, 21 amplified alleles in the expected size range in all samples; 11 primer pairs amplified clean products in most, but not all, species; 18 primer pairs consistently amplified a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product in most species, but had either low peak height or other amplification issues; and 14 primers showed excessive stutter, nonspecific amplification, or no amplification. Cluster analysis using the 129 alleles amplified by these 21 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer pairs generated groups that corresponded to the known taxonomic relationships in this genus.