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Title: DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT (SSR) MOLECULAR MARKERS IN STRAWBERRY

Author
item Nourse Styan, Sarah
item Fickus, Edward
item Cregan, Perry
item HOKANSON, STAN - UNIV OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/14/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: SSR molecular markers have been shown to be repeatable, co-dominant, highly polymorphic, technically simple to use, and well distributed within the genomes of many plant and animal species. SSR markers have shown great utility for many applications including genetic fingerprinting of cultivars and germplasm, genetic diversity assessment, QTL discovery, gene mapping, and marker assisted selection. Currently there are no published simple sequence repeat, SSR molecular markers for strawberry. We have developed 21 strawberry SSRs to date, and eighteen of these primer sets have successfully amplified PCR products in a subset of cultivars and been visualized on agarose and polyacrylamide gels. Further work to optimize the use of these SSR primers, characterization of a world-wide collection of strawberry germplasm, and development of additional SSRs is ongoing. This work should benefit researchers interested in molecular marker applications in their work for fingerprinting germplasm, understanding genetic and evolutionary, relationships, mapping QTLs and genes, and marker assisted selection. This work could also be utilized by plant nurseries and breeders who may be interested in using these markers as a method of cultivar identification.

Technical Abstract: Simple sequence repeat, SSR, molecular markers have been shown to be repeatable, co-dominant, highly polymorphic, technically simple to use, and well distributed within the genomes of many plant and animal species. SSR markers have shown great utility for many applications including genetic fingerprinting of cultivars and germplasm, genetic diversity assessment, QTL discovery, gene mapping, and marker assisted selection. Genomic DNA from the cultivar `Earliglow' was digested with Sma1, Rsa1, and Msc1 restriction enzymes, electrophoresed, and DNA fragments of 400-800bp were selected. The DNA fragments were ligated into pUC19 plasmid cloning vectors and a genomic library was constructed. The library was screened with an alpha-P32 labeled (CT)15 probe. Forty (CT)n clones were sequenced, with twenty-seven of these clones containing suitable repeats and flanking regions for primer design. Eighteen of these primer sets have successfully amplified PCR products in a subset of cultivars and been visualized on agarose and polyacrylamide gels. Further work to optimize the use of these SSR primers, characterization of a world-wide collection of strawberry germplasm, and development of additional SSRs is ongoing.