Development of SSR Markers for Chionanthus Retusus (Oleaceae) and Cross Amplification of Closely Related Taxa

Chionanthus is a genus of the Oleaceae family along with Olea, Fraxinus and Forsythia.  Albeit being used as ornamental and commercialized as a natural product, the genetic information of Chionanthus spp. is negligible. We have created microsatellite-enriched libraries of C. retusus, assembled 1072 contigs, and detected 1010 repeats.  The frequency of the repeats decreased exponentially with the increase in repeat length, and the most abundant motives were: AG, AC, AAG, ACC, AT and ACTC.  We have screened 384 markers on 12 Chionanthus related taxa, characterized 57 microsatellite loci across four species of Oleaceae and characterized 195 within the species C. retusus, most of these being polymorphic.  Polymorphic information content (PIC) values varied from zero to 0.85, and the percentage of heterozygous loci was in a range from 24.6 to 68.4%.  The SSR markers developed here could assist in the botanical characterization for breeding programs and in the industry for the quality control and authentication of varieties of these medicinal plants.