Development of microsatellite markers in Fragaria, their use in genetic diversity analysis, and their potential for genetic linkage mapping.

We have developed 21 new microsatellites in the model diploid perennial species Fragaria vesca from an enriched genomic library developed using F. vesca 'Ruegen'. The transferability of the primer pairs to other Fragaria species was high; all 31 primer pairs produced amplicons in 3 accessions of the octoploid strawberry Fragaria × ananassa, whereas 24 (77%) amplified a product in 7 other diploid Fragaria species. We analysed the allelic variation among 15 F. vesca accessions using the 21 microsatellites reported here and 10 F. vesca microsatellites described previously. The level of polymorphism detected at these microsatellite loci was high; five loci were monomorphic. Only two microsatellites were required to unambiguously discriminate among the 15 F. vesca accessions. A preliminary survey of segregation in an F2 progeny indicates that 20 of the 26 polymorphic loci (77%) could be mapped.Key words: Fragaria, genetic fingerprinting, microsatellites.