Characterization of microsatellites in Bambusa arundinacea and cross species amplification in other bamboos.

Microsatellites, tandem repeats of short nucleotide (1-6 bp) sequences, are the DNA marker of choice because of their highly polymorphic, ubiquitous distribution within genome, ease of genotyping through polymerase chain reaction (PCR), selectively neutral, co-dominant and multi allelic nature. Six microsatellites, three polymorphic and three monomorphic, have been characterized for the first time in a bamboo species, Bambusa arudinacea belonging to the family Poaceae. The number of alleles per locus ranges form 2 to 13.