An enrichment protocol was used to isolate and characterise microsatellite loci in Rosmarinus officinalis, a Mediterranean chamephyte. Twelve microsatellite loci were characterised and amplified a total of 117 alleles in a sample of 30 individuals from one population, with an average of 9.75 alleles per locus. Observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.333 to 0.900. Cross-species transferability was also assayed in the two other species of the genus. The cumulated probabilities of exclusion for paternity and parentage of the 12 loci were of 0.999971 and 1, respectively, supporting the usefulness of these microsatellite loci for parentage analyses. Nine out of 12 microsatellite loci amplified in the two species and were polymorphic detecting a total of 49 and 45 in R. eriocalyx and R. tomentosus, respectively. Twenty-two alleles were exclusive of R. eriocalyx and 12 of R. tomentosus, additionally, three alleles were shared between these two species but were otherwise absent in the analysed individuals of R. officinalis. In total, this set of markers amplified 154 different microsatellite alleles, supporting their usefulness to conduct population genetic, reproductive biology and hybridisation studies in Rosmarinus.

We thank Dr. M. Palop-Esteban for her help during sampling and Prof. J.F. Mota (University of Almería, Spain) for providing samples of R. eriocalyx. This study has been supported by a Project grant "Ayudas para la realización de proyectos de I+D+i para equipos de investigación emergentes o de reciente creación (Ref. GV/2007/259)" from the Conselleria d’Empresa, Universitat i Ciencia, Generalitat Valenciana. J. G. Segarra-Moragues was supported by a Itinerario Integrado de Inserción Profesional (I3P) postdoctoral grant from the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and G. Gleiser was supported by a FPU PhD grant from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia.

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