Development and characterisation of EST-SSR markers by transcriptome sequencing in taro ( Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schoot)

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is an important crop with a long history of cultivation. In this study 5278 SSRs were identified in taro transcriptome data. A total of 2858 primer pairs were designed for marker development. 100 primers were randomly selected and synthesized. Among them, 72 primer pairs were successfully amplified and 62 were polymorphic in taro accessions. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 14 for each different polymorphic locus and the polymorphism information content valued ranged from 0.01 to 0.82. The phylogenetic tree was also constructed to analyse the genetic diversity in 68 taro accessions. The large number of taro SSR markers developed in the present study will be useful in the researches of genetic diversity, germplasm characterization and molecular breeding etc.