Development and Characterization of SSR Markers in the Gossypium Barbadense Genome

Abstract BackgroundThe fiber quality and resistance traits of Gossypium barbadense are considerably better than that of other Gossypium species. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are user friendly, low cost markers widely used in genetic studies. However, most SSRs have been developed from G. hirsutum, G. arboreum, and G. raimondii; no genome-wide SSRs have been developed from G. barbadense.The de novo sequences of G. barbadense cv. Xinhai21 were utilized to develop SSR markers and scanned to detect SSRs using the MIcroSAtellite (http://pgrc.ipk-gatersleben.de/misa/) identification tool. And then in silico PCR analysis was conducted to evaluate these primers polymorphism in five Gossypium species.ResultsIn total, 85,582 SSRs were identified with different motifs. 153,560 primer pairs were successfully designed for 73,419 SSRs. In silico analysis, we found that 8,466 primer pairs of 3,288 SSRs yielded one product (monomorphic) simultaneously in five Gossypium species. two Gossypium species (30 G. hirsutum and 27 G. barbadense accessions) were successfully separated by 300 primer pairs with the polymorphism information content (PIC) ranging from 0.00 to 0.93. ConclusionThese newly developed SSR markers will be helpful for the construction of genetic linkage maps, genetic diversity analyses, QTL mapping, and molecular breeding of Gossypium species.