SSR Markers in the Genus Pistacia

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) are one of the most powerful molecular marker systems due to abundance in the genomes, its codominant nature, and high repeat-ability. P. vera L. is cultivated species in the genus Pistacia due to commercial value of its edible nuts. Other species in the genus are in the wild and are important especially for rootstock sources as well as for ornamental and forest trees. There were a very limited number of SSR markers for Pistacia species until several years ago; however, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has allowed to develop plenty of SSRs since 2016 in the genus. There are currently about 1500 published SSR markers developed from cultivated P. vera . There are also several studies generating SSR loci from wild Pistacia species. In a conclusion, there are currently an adequate number of SSR markers for cultivated pistachio and that can be used in wild Pistacia species due to their high level of transferability rate between Pistacia species . These SSRs can be used for assaying diversity in natural populations, marker discovery, germplasm characterization, parental identification, genetic linkage mapping, and evolutionary studies in the genus Pistacia .