Occurrence of microsatellites in spinach sequences from computer databases and development of polymorphic SSR markers |
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| Authors: | R Groben G Wricke |
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| Institution: | Institut für Angewandte Genetik, Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Strasse 2, D-30419 Hannover, Germany;Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Microsatellites are valuable tools as molecular markers in plant breeding. To establish genetic linkage maps or for population studies, information about the occurrence and usability of microsatellite markers in different species is necessary. Sequences of spinach Spinacia oleracea from computer databases were therefore searched for the presence of microsatellites. Sixty simple sequence repeats were found in 237 spinach sequences with a total of 349.4 kb DNA. After removing duplicated sequences, 50 different microsatellites with various motifs remained. Differences between nuclear and chloroplast DNA were not in the number of microsatellites but in their type and length. Chloroplast sequences from spinach contain only short strings of A and AT repeats, whereas nuclear sequences show a wider variety of motifs. Flanking primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis were designed for 13 of these microsatellites and tested with two different varieties of spinach. Twelve primer pairs gave amplification products and seven of these showed polymorphisms in the variety ‘Wiremona’ but only one in the variety ‘Monatol’. These markers may be used for linkage analysis or population studies in spinach. |
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| Keywords: | Spinacia oleracea genetic mapping length polymorphisms molecular markers simple sequence repeats |
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