Polyploidy plays an important role in the evolution of plant genomes. To enable the investigation of the polyploidy events within the genus Anemone, we developed eighteen microsatellite markers from the hexaploid species A. amurensis (Ranunculaceae), and tested their transferability in five closely related species. The number of total alleles (N(A)) for each resulting locus varied from one to eight. The polymorphism information content (PIC) and Nei's genetic diversity (N(GD)) for these microsatellites ranged from 0.00 to 0.71 and 0.00 to 0.91, respectively. For each population, the N(A) was one to seven, and the values of PIC and N(GD) varied from 0.00 to 0.84 and 0.00 to 0.95, respectively. In addition, most of these microsatellites can be amplified successfully in the congeneric species. These microsatellite primers provide us an opportunity to study the polyploid evolution in the genus Anemone.
Keywords: A. amurensis; Anemone; microsatellite; polymorphism information content; polyploidy.