Exploiting legume EST databases for the development of gene-derived SSR-markers in medicinal legume Mucuna pruriens L. (DC.)

Abstract

This paper reports method for the development of microsatellite markers in Mucuna pruriens from a deluge of EST sequence data of related legume species available in public database. Totally, 2,86,488 EST sequences from four legume species viz., Vigna unguiculata, Glycine max, Phaseolus vulgaris and Cicer arietinum generated 22,457 SSRs comprising of 29.08% di-, 46.41% tri-, 7.29% tetra-, and 17.22% penta-nucleotide repeats. Based on 22,457 SSR containing sequences, 522 primer combinations were designed and 50 were screened against a diverse panel of 25 genotypes, of which 3 produced polymorphic profiles with an average PIC of 0.65. The work demonstrates low cost method for microsatellite development in resource poor medicinal plants and is first such report on sequence based marker development in M. pruriens.