PAG-II Plant Genome II Conference

Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.


PG-II: SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT DNA MARKERS FOR GENOME MAPPING AND GENOTYPE IDENTIFICATION

SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT DNA MARKERS FOR GENOME MAPPING AND GENOTYPE IDENTIFICATION.

Perry B. Cregan, Mahinur S. Akkaya, Jiang Rongwen, Soybean and Alfalfa Research Lab, USDA, ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705, Arvind A. Bhagwat, Dept. of Agronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; and Uri Lavi, Inst. of Horticulture, ARO, The Volcanic Center, Bet-Dagan, Israel.


Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) or microsatellite DNA markers have become the marker of choice by human and other mammalian geneticists. Characteristics of SSR markers that have resulted in their rapid acceptance include:

  • Highly informative nature
  • Abundance
  • Co-dominant inheritance
  • High level of reproducibility
  • PCR amplification
  • No probe maintenance and distribution. We and other groups have demonstrated the presence of SSRs in a number of plant species including soybean, maize, rice, alfalfa, Brassica, mango, avocado, and apple. Among a group of 96 diverse soybean genotypes we have identified SSR loci with as many as 29 alleles. In this group of genotypes, Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) values of SSR markers have ranged from 0.60 to 0.95. Using a selected set of markers even closely related genotypes can often be distinguished. Mapping of these loci in two soy bean populations suggests that SSR loci are well distributed throughout the soybean genome. Linkages with a number of RFLP and morphological markers have also been detected in one mapping population. If other plant species possess levels of polymorphism comparable to soybean SSR markers should be as useful to plant geneticists as they have proven to be in mammalian systems.


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