Abstract
BackgroundLack of sufficient molecular markers hinders current genetic research in peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.). It is necessary to develop more molecular markers for potential use in peanut genetic research. With the development of peanut EST projects, a vast amount of available EST sequence data has been generated. These data offered an opportunity to identify SSR in ESTs by data mining.ResultsIn this study, we investigated 24,238 ESTs for the identification and development of SSR markers. In total, 881 SSRs were identified from 780 SSR-containing unique ESTs. On an average, one SSR was found per 7.3 kb of EST sequence with tri-nucleotide motifs (63.9%) being the most abundant followed by di- (32.7%), tetra- (1.7%), hexa- (1.0%) and penta-nucleotide (0.7%) repeat types. The top six motifs included AG/TC (27.7%), AAG/TTC (17.4%), AAT/TTA (11.9%), ACC/TGG (7.72%), ACT/TGA (7.26%) and AT/TA (6.3%). Based on the 780 SSR-containing ESTs, a total of 290 primer pairs were successfully designed and used for validation of the amplification and assessment of the polymorphism among 22 genotypes of cultivated peanuts and 16 accessions of wild species. The results showed that 251 primer pairs yielded amplification products, of which 26 and 221 primer pairs exhibited polymorphism among the cultivated and wild species examined, respectively. Two to four alleles were found in cultivated peanuts, while 3–8 alleles presented in wild species. The apparent broad polymorphism was further confirmed by cloning and sequencing of amplified alleles. Sequence analysis of selected amplified alleles revealed that allelic diversity could be attributed mainly to differences in repeat type and length in the microsatellite regions. In addition, a few single base mutations were observed in the microsatellite flanking regions.ConclusionThis study gives an insight into the frequency, type and distribution of peanut EST-SSRs and demonstrates successful development of EST-SSR markers in cultivated peanut. These EST-SSR markers could enrich the current resource of molecular markers for the peanut community and would be useful for qualitative and quantitative trait mapping, marker-assisted selection, and genetic diversity studies in cultivated peanut as well as related Arachis species. All of the 251 working primer pairs with names, motifs, repeat types, primer sequences, and alleles tested in cultivated and wild species are listed in Additional File 1.
Highlights
Lack of sufficient molecular markers hinders current genetic research in peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.)
Large amount of morphological and agronomic variation is evident among accessions of cultivated peanuts, but extremely low levels of polymorphism were observed using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) [2,3,4,5]
85 ESTs contained more than one simple-sequence repeats (SSRs) and 59 were compound SSRs that have more than one repeat type
Summary
Lack of sufficient molecular markers hinders current genetic research in peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.). It is necessary to develop more molecular markers for potential use in peanut genetic research. Cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is grown on 25.5 million hectares with a total global production of about million tons. Simple-sequence repeats (SSRs) showed a potential for use in genetic studies of cultivated peanuts [6,7,8,9,10,11]. It is expensive, labor-intensive and time-consuming to develop SSR markers from genomic DNA libraries [12]. There is great need for development of novel SSR markers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
