Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for Axonopus compressus (Sw.) Beauv. (Poaceae) using 454 sequencing technology.

Axonopus compressus (Sw.) Beauv. is a perennial herb widely used as a garden lawn grass. In this study, we used Roche 454 pyrosequencing, combined with the magnetic bead enrichment method FIASCO, to isolate simple sequence repeat markers from the A. compressus genome. A total of 1942 microsatellite loci were identified, with 53,193 raw sequencing reads. One hundred micro-satellite loci were selected to test the primer amplification efficiency in 24 individuals; 14 primer pairs yielded polymorphic amplification products. The number of observed alleles ranged from two to six, with an average of 3.5. Shannon's Information index values ranged from 0.169 to 0.650, with an average of 0.393. Nei's genetic diversity values ranged from 0.108 to 0.457, with an average of 0.271. This first set of microsatellite markers developed for Axonopus will assist in the development of molecular marker-assisted breeding and the assessment of genetic diversity in A. compressus.