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Premise of the Study: The first set of expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were developed and characterized for Speranskia tuberculata (Euphorbiaceae), a traditional medicinal plant endemic to northern China, to explore the effects of recent habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity and structure of this species., Methods and Results: In this study, a total of 18 novel polymorphic microsatellite (EST-SSR) markers were developed for S. tuberculata using high-throughput transcriptome sequencing. Analysis of 24 individuals of S. tuberculata from four natural populations revealed their robust polymorphic reliability. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to 11, while the expected and observed heterozygosity per marker varied from 0.187 to 0.827 and 0.042 to 0.917, respectively. Of these markers, 13 showed good amplification results in the closely related species S. cantonensis ., Conclusions: These newly generated SSR markers are expected to provide novel tools for genetic studies of S. tuberculata , which will contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the species' wild genetic resources.

Premise of the Study: Bombax ceiba (Malvaceae), commonly known as silk cotton tree, is a multipurpose tree species of tropical forests. Novel expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were developed and characterized for the species using transcriptome analysis., Methods and Results: A total of 33 new EST-SSR markers were developed for B. ceiba, of which 13 showed polymorphisms across the 24 individuals from four distant populations tested in the study. The results showed that the number of alleles per polymorphic locus ranged from two to four, and the expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity per locus varied from 0.043 to 0.654 and from 0 to 0.609, respectively., Conclusions: These newly developed EST-SSR markers can be used in phylogeographic and population genetic studies to investigate the origin of B. ceiba populations. Furthermore, these EST-SSR markers could also greatly promote the development of molecular breeding studies pertaining to silk cotton tree.