Development and characterization of 38 microsatellite markers for Camellia flavida based on transcriptome sequencing

Camellia flavida is an endangered and valuable ornamental plant species with yellow flower. Here we isolated and characterized 38 polymorphic microsatellite loci for C. flavida using transcriptome sequencing. The markers were tested on one population of C. flavida and one population of closely related C. nitidissima. For C. fladviia, all of these loci showed polymorphism, and the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 8. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.250 to 0.900 and from 0.250 to 0.789, respectively. These markers will be useful in the research on the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of C. flavida. These loci can also be used for other related Camellia species.