Genome-Wide Computational Analysis of Musa Microsatellites: Classification, Cross-Taxon Transferability, Functional Annotation, Association with Transposons & miRNAs, and Genetic Marker Potential

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 29;10(6):e0131312. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131312. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The development of organized, informative, robust, user-friendly, and freely accessible molecular markers is imperative to the Musa marker assisted breeding program. Although several hundred SSR markers have already been developed, the number of informative, robust, and freely accessible Musa markers remains inadequate for some breeding applications. In view of this issue, we surveyed SSRs in four different data sets, developed large-scale non-redundant highly informative therapeutic SSR markers, and classified them according to their attributes, as well as analyzed their cross-taxon transferability and utility for the genetic study of Musa and its relatives. A high SSR frequency (177 per Mbp) was found in the Musa genome. AT-rich dinucleotide repeats are predominant, and trinucleotide repeats are the most abundant in transcribed regions. A significant number of Musa SSRs are associated with pre-miRNAs, and 83% of these SSRs are promising candidates for the development of therapeutic SSR markers. Overall, 74% of the SSR markers were polymorphic, and 94% were transferable to at least one Musa spp. Two hundred forty-three markers generated a total of 1047 alleles, with 2-8 alleles each and an average of 4.38 alleles per locus. The PIC values ranged from 0.31 to 0.89 and averaged 0.71. We report the largest set of non-redundant, polymorphic, new SSR markers to be developed in Musa. These additional markers could be a valuable resource for marker-assisted breeding, genetic diversity and genomic studies of Musa and related species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • DNA Transposable Elements / genetics*
  • DNA, Plant / genetics
  • DNA, Plant / isolation & purification
  • Genetic Markers
  • Genome, Plant*
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism
  • Microsatellite Repeats / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation*
  • Musa / genetics*
  • Polymorphism, Genetic
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • DNA Transposable Elements
  • DNA, Plant
  • Genetic Markers
  • MicroRNAs

Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China No. U1131004; National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program) No. 2011AA10020602; 948 Project from Ministry of Agriculture of China No. 2011-G16; National Banana Industry and Technology System Project No. CARS-32-01; International Collaborative Project from Ministry of Science and Technology of China No. 2013DFB30400; Commonwealth Industry (Agriculture) Specific Fund No. 200903049-10; and Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (No. 2013J2200081). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.