Microsatellites mining in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and their cross transferability across Arecaceae family

Phoenix dactylifera L. (date palm) is the first publicly available nuclear genome sequence under Arecaceae family and indeed under the entire order Arecales. These genomic sequences were mined for microsatellites which could be used for marker assisted selection for important traits. We have developed an integrated, configurable and time effective microsatellite mining and annotation pipeline for this purpose. Microsatellite survey of date palm whole genome shotgun sequences using the developed pipeline detected a total of 166,760 perfect repeats with an average of one SSR per 2.2kb. Putative functions of these SSR-containing sequences within the proximity of genic regions were predicted. Primers targeting the functionally important SSR regions were designed and a set of eight SSR primers synthesized and were validated in vitro across five members of the Arecaceae family (coconut, arecanut, oilpalm, date palm and palmyrah palm). We have found that 28.6% of the SSRs are common among the members of arecaceae family. Those SSRs could be used in molecular marker analysis of less studied palm family members like arecanut and palmyrah palm.