Novel microsatellite markers in Pistacia vera L. and their transferability across the genus Pistacia

This study was undertaken primarily to develop new simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) and related Pistacia species using genomic libraries enriched for dinucleotide (GA)n and trinucleotide (AAG)n microsatellite motifs. A total of 192 clones were sequenced from each library, 135 primer pairs were designed, and 110 generated PCR products. Forty-six loci from the GA library and 18 loci from the AAG library produced polymorphic fragments following testing of 12 pistachio cultivars. A total of 264 alleles were generated from the polymorphic loci with an average of 4.13 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) was 0.51, whereas the observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He) values were 0.52 and 0.56, respectively. Transferability of 110 SSR primer pairs were tested in ten wild Pistacia species, and 100 were transferable to at least one of the Pistacia species. Pistacia eurycarpa Yalt. had the highest number of transferable loci, whereas Pistacia texana Swingle and Pistacia lentiscus L. had the lowest one. This is the first study to report candidate SSR markers for P. eurycarpa, Pistacia palaestina and P. texana. It is apparent that SSR markers developed in this study could aid germplasm characterization, construction of genetic linkage maps and comparative mapping in the genus Pistacia.