Development of 16 single‐copy nuclear gene markers for Oreocharis auricula, a perennial herb in China

PREMISE: We developed single‐copy nuclear DNA markers for a perennial herb, Oreocharis auricula (Gesneriaceae), to help infer the evolutionary history of the genus Oreocharis in subtropical China. METHODS AND RESULTS: We screened 834 putative single‐copy nuclear genes from transcriptomes of 11 species of Primulina using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Based on the screening results, we developed 16 primer sets for accessions of O. auricula representing three wild populations. The number of alleles per locus ranged from three to 34. The levels of expected and observed heterozygosity varied from 0.000 to 0.372 and 0.000 to 0.650, respectively. The markers were successfully cross‐amplified in the related species O. magnidens, O. speciosa, O. maximowiczii, and O. henryana. CONCLUSIONS: The newly developed markers will facilitate further studies on genetic diversity and phylogeographic structure throughout the distributional range of O. auricula. Additionally, these markers may be useful for other related species in Gesneriaceae.