Development of 198 novel EST-derived microsatellites in eucalyptus (myrtaceae)

Abstract

Premise of the study: Expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived microsatellites were identified in Eucalyptus through screening the GenBank database. The loci were sequence-verified and explored for polymorphism among 20 genotypes. Methods and Results: In total, 198 novel microsatellites were developed from 8262 unigenes, with the identity of 73.6-100% to the original sequences and presence of the expected repeat motifs. One hundred and eighty-four markers proved to be polymorphic among 10 E. urophylla and 10 E. tereticornis genotypes, with the number of alleles per locus, observed heterozygosity, and polymorphic information content being 2-17 (mean: 7.11), 0-1.0 (mean: 0.4511), and 0.0940-0.9131 (mean: 0.6571), respectively. Conclusions: These markers will be useful for germplasm characterization, genome mapping, and gene tagging for economic traits in the two species examined and may have potential for genetic applications in Eucalyptus. © 2012 Botanical Society of America.