Identification and characterization of microsatellite loci in the tuliptree, Liriodendron tulipifera (Magnoliaceae)(1)

PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Twenty-three polymorphic microsatellite loci (simple sequence repeats) were identified and characterized for Liriodendron tulipifera (Magnoliaceae), a species native to eastern North America, to investigate its genetic diversity, population structure, and mating system. METHODS AND RESULTS: Using Illumina HiSeq paired-end reads from genomic DNA, searches for repeat motifs identified approximately 280,000 potentially amplifiable loci. Of 77 loci tested, 51 amplified consistently. When genotyped using 30 to 52 total adult trees from three old-growth populations in Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey, USA, 23 loci were polymorphic. These loci exhibited four to 13 alleles, and observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.233 to 0.865 and 0.272 to 0.876, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The microsatellite marker loci presented here will be valuable in population genetic studies of L. tulipifera because they do not suffer from ascertainment bias and show high polymorphism.