Survey and analysis of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in three genomes of Candida species

•The microsatellites covered more than 1/3 length of genomes in the three species.•The three genomes of Candida tend to format SSRs with 6 bp and 9 bp length.•The dmax significantly influence the formation of compound microsatellites.

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) or microsatellites, which composed of tandem repeated short units of 1–6 bp, have been paying attention continuously. Here, the distribution, composition and polymorphism of microsatellites and compound microsatellites were analyzed in three available genomes of Candida species (Candida dubliniensis, Candida glabrata and Candida orthopsilosis). The results show that there were 118,047, 66,259 and 61,119 microsatellites in genomes of C. dubliniensis, C. glabrata and C. orthopsilosis, respectively. The SSRs covered more than 1/3 length of genomes in the three species. The microsatellites, which just consist of bases A and (or) T, such as (A)n, (T)n, (AT)n, (TA)n, (AAT)n, (TAA)n, (TTA)n, (ATA)n, (ATT)n and (TAT)n, were predominant in the three genomes. The length of microsatellites was focused on 6 bp and 9 bp either in the three genomes or in its coding sequences. What's more, the relative abundance (19.89/kbp) and relative density (167.87 bp/kbp) of SSRs in sequence of mitochondrion of C. glabrata were significantly great than that in any one of genomes or chromosomes of the three species. In addition, the distance between any two adjacent microsatellites was an important factor to influence the formation of compound microsatellites. The analysis may be helpful for further studying the roles of microsatellites in genomes' origination, organization and evolution of Candida species.