Microsatellite loci for the Chinese bamboo rat Rhizomus sinensis.

We describe 19 polymorphic microsatellite loci for the bamboo rat Rhizomus sinensis. When tested with 20 samples from a single population, these loci exhibited a mean of 4.5 alleles per locus and a mean expected heterozygosity of 0.612. All loci were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium and no evidence for linkage disequilibrium was detected between any loci. These loci will be useful for studying population genetic diversity and differentiation in the Chinese bamboo rat.