Isolation and Characterization of 88 Polymorphic Microsatellite Markers in Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.)

Abstract

<jats:p>Kentucky bluegrass (<jats:italic>Poa pratensis</jats:italic> L.) is an important facultative apomictic temperate perennial grass species used for both forage and cultivated turf. Through apomixis, this species is able to propagate diverse and odd ploidy levels, resulting in many genetically distinct phenotypes. A wide range of diverse cultivars and accessions of kentucky bluegrass have been previously characterized based on common turf performance or morphological characteristics as well as by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Although previous characterization efforts have provided valuable information, the use of both morphological characteristics and RAPD markers for genetic diversity analysis has limitations. In the current report, we developed and characterized 88 novel microsatellite markers for kentucky bluegrass. Polymorphism for each marker was assessed in 265 kentucky bluegrass cultivars, experimental selections, collections, and hybrids. The number of alleles for individual microsatellites ranged from four to 81 with an average of 38.3 alleles per simple sequence repeat. These polymorphic microsatellite markers would be useful tools for investigating genetic diversity, creation of genetic linkage maps, assessment of levels of apomixis in cultivars and experimental varieties, and identification of aberrant progeny in apomictic kentucky bluegrass breeding programs.</jats:p>

Isolation and characterization of 15 polymorphic genomic simple sequence repeat markers in Poa pratensis L.

“…Out of the 163 sequences, 114 sequences were unique. A homology Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) search against the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GenBank database revealed one sequence to be identical to a published SSR sequence (Honig et al 2010). Among the 113 novel sequences, 70 were suitable for primer design.…”

“…At present, 88 polymorphic SSR markers are available for P. pratensis (Honig et al . ). Herein, we report the development of 15 additional polymorphic genomic SSR markers for this species.…”

“…Polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are useful tools for investigating genetic diversity and assessing levels of apomixis in cultivars and experimental varieties. At present, 88 polymorphic SSR markers are available for P. pratensis (Honig et al 2010). Herein, we report the development of 15 additional polymorphic genomic SSR markers for this species.…”

Generation and release of molecular markers for Poa arachnifera Torr.

“…; Honig et al . ). A preliminary map of P. pratensis, using microsatellite markers, has also been published (Albertini et al .…”

The application of flow cytometry and a thioredoxin‐like nuclear gene for breeding Poa arachnifera x Poa pratensis hybrids

“…Molecular marker analysis serves as a useful tool for the identification of interspecific hybrids. In P. pratensis, the utility of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Huff andBara 1993, Barcaccia et al 1997), sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) (Albertini et al 2001) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) (Honig et al 2010, Bushman et al 2013) has been demonstrated. Published marker systems for P. arachnifera include the use of amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) (Renganayaki et al 2001) and SSR markers (Kindiger et al 2011(Kindiger et al , 2013.…”