ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A FIRST SET OF POLYMORPHIC MICROSATELLITE MARKERS IN SAFFRON, CROCUS SATIVUS (IRIDACEAE)

Premise of the study: Twelve novel polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and characterized from a repeat-enriched genomic library of Crocus sativus to study population and conservation genetics of this economically and medically important species. Methods and Results: The microsatellite loci were isolated using a modified Fast Isolation by AFLP of Sequences COntaining repeats (FIASCO) method. The average number of alleles per locus was 2.6. The observed and expected heterozygosities varied from 0.07 to 0.92 and 0.1 to 0.58, respectively. Polymorphic information content value ranged from 0.09 to 0.55 with an average of 0.34. Four out of twelve loci showed significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Conclusions: The microsatellite markers reported here will be useful for evaluating genetic diversity and will likely serve as an ideal resource for use in marker-assisted breeding programs, germplasm analysis, and varietal identification.