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.
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.