Abstract:Fifteen polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and characterized for Castanopsis fargesii Franch. (Fagaceae), a dominant species in typical broad-leaved evergreen forest of China. The development of microsatellite loci was conducted using the fast isolation by AFLP of sequences containing repeats protocol (FIASCO). Fifteen microsatellite primers (SSR) were used to examine the genetic diversity of a natural population of C. fargesii in Jiulianshan Nature Reserve, Jiangxi Province. The number of alleles varied from four to eight, with a mean value of 6.7 alleles per locus. The mean observed heterozygosity (HO) and expected heterozygosity (HE) were 0.690 and 0.698, ranging from 0.250 to 1.000 and 0.293 to 0.867, respectively. The first estimate of paternity exclusion probability Pr (EX1) varied from 0.043 to 0.527 for individual loci and 0.9972 for the combined loci, when the offspring was sampled but the mother is not. The second estimate, Pr (EX2), ranged from 0.159 to 0.694 for individual loci and 0.9999 for the combined loci, when both the mother and the offspring were sampled. It indicated that these loci could provide a powerful tool for investigating genetic diversity and population genetic structure of C. fargesii.