Isolation and characterization of 10 microsatellite markers for Dendrobium nobile, a traditional Chinese tonic medicine

Dendrobium nobile (Orchidaceae) is a traditional Chinese tonic medicine. It is in danger of extinction in recent years because of habitat destruction and human overexploitation. To estimate genetic diversity and population structure of D. nobile, ten novel polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated by a modified biotin-streptavidin capture method. A total of 119 alleles were detected in the 102 D. nobile samples from seven natural populations. All of the ten loci were polymorphic (PIC > 0.50), the number of alleles per locus ranged from 12 to 32. Observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.52 to 0.89 and from 0.64 to 0.9, respectively. Only one locus (YWJ001) showed significant deviation from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. All the microsatellite markers were highly informative for further genetic diversity studies and could be used to evaluate the conservation of D. nobile efficiently.