Development of novel chloroplast microsatellite markers for Miscanthus species (Poaceae).

Premise Of The Study: A set of novel chloroplast microsatellite markers (cpSSRs) was developed for the bioenergy crop Miscanthus, and their utility in cross-species amplification was evaluated.

Methods And Results: Twenty-eight novel primers flanking cpSSR loci were designed from a complete chloroplast genome sequence of Saccharum officinarum, a species closely related to Miscanthus. These primers were then tested on eight Miscanthus species, among which 16 cpSSR loci were found to be polymorphic.