Characteristics and a comparison of three classes of microsatellite-based markers and their application in plants.

Microsatellites (SSR--simple sequence repeats, STR--short tandem repeats, SSLP--simple sequence length polymorphism, VNTR--variable number of tandem repeats) are the class of repetitive DNA sequences present in all living organisms. Particular characteristics of microsatellites, such as their presence in the genomes of all living organisms, high level of allelic variation, co-dominant mode of inheritance and potential for automated analysis make them an excellent tool for a number of approaches like genotyping, mapping and positional cloning of genes. The three most popular types of markers containing microsatellite sequences that are presently used are: (1) SSR (simple sequence repeats), generated by amplifying in a PCR reaction with the use of primers complementary to flanking regions; (2) ISSR (inter-simple sequence repeats), based on the amplification of regions between inversely oriented closely spaced microsatellites; and (3) SAMPL (selective amplification of microsatellite polymorphic loci), which utilises AFLP (amplified fragment-length polymorphism) methodology, with one exception--for the second amplification, one of the starters is complementary to the microsatellite sequence. The usefulness of the three above-mentioned markers for numerous purposes has been well documented for plants.