The use of microsatellite markers in the annual and perennial Cicer species growing in Turkey

Several types of molecular markers have been used in plant breeding and genetic diversity for a wide range of applications. Generally, single-locus co-dominant markers are preferred, because they make it possible to tag and map the same loci in many different populations and even species. Probably the best markers in this respect are microsatellites. The analysis based on microsatellites in our study has revealed the usefulness of these markers in the identification of polymorphism in chickpea genome, which was earlier thought to be less polymorphic. Such markers will be highly efficient in identifying specific markers linked to the trait of interest. The plant material used in this study included 43 wild and 2 cultivated CiceT accessions representing annual and perennial Cicer with distribution in Turkey. Ten STMS primers were selected from Cicer species depending on their ability to amplify genomic DNA in all species. Separation of the PCR products on agarose gels revealed single bands of the expected size with 10 of the primer pairs. DNA from C. arietinum, C. reticulatum, C. echinospermum, C. pinnatifidum, C. bijugum, and C. anatolicum amplified with the primers GA2, GA24, TA13, GAA47, TA46, TA130, TA72, TA146, TS54, TS72 respectively, were sequenced and compared with the chickpea sequence. The DNA of one accession for each species has been amplified with 45 chickpea-derived STMS primer pairs. Amplification resulted either in the presence or absence of products. For other STMS loci, only three STMS/species combinations were successful which could be used as specific markers (GAA47, TS54 and TA72). We examined whether and to which extent STMS primers designed for the cultigen could also be applied to genome analysis of wild Cicer species