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.