Development of twelve novel microsatellite markers in the medicinal mushroom Cordyceps militaris (Ascomycota: Clavicipitaceae) for its strain identification and genetic analysis

Cordyceps militaris (a caterpillar fungus), which belongs to the class Ascomycetes, has extensively been used for medicinal purposes in East Asia. Here, we isolated and characterized 12 microsatellite loci from the medicinal mushroom, C. militaris. Twenty-nine individual samples were taken from a single locality in southwestern Korea and used to characterize the developed markers. The number of alleles of these loci ranged from two to 13 (mean allelic richness = 6.44). Observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity in the population ranged from 0.035 to 0.880 and from 0.035 to 0.886, respectively. Five of 12 loci significantly deviated from Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium, most likely due to heterozygote deficiency caused by inbreeding. Tests of genotypic linkage disequilibrium between the 12 loci showed no significant association of alleles. These microsatellite markers will provide valuable tools for genetic analyses for the strain identification of C. militaris as well as for its resource conservation.