Silvia Matesanz^1,2, Sonia E. Sultan¹, Kenneth L. Jones³, Cris Hagen⁴, and Stacey L. Lance⁴

¹Biology Department, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459 USA
²Laboratorio Internacional de Cambio Global (LINC-Global), Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales,
CSIC, Madrid 28006 Spain
³Georgia Genomics Facility, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 USA
⁴Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina 29802 USA

Premise of the study: We isolated and characterized microsatellite markers in Polygonum cespitosum Blume, an herbaceous annual plant species introduced into North America from Asia that has recently become invasive.
Methods and Results: A total of 12 polymorphic and 3 monomorphic loci were screened in 1–2 individuals from each of 20 populations from the introduced and native range, for a total of 24 samples. The number of alleles per locus in the polymorphic loci ranged from 3 to 9, and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.156 to 0.838.
Conclusions: These new loci will provide tools for examining genetic relatedness among introduced and native populations of this and other related species.

Keywords: microsatellite, PCR primers, Persicaria, Polygonum, SSR, STR.

SREL Reprint #3213