Transferability of cowpea and azuki bean derived SSR markers to other Vigna species

The genus Vigna contains many important grain legumes in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. Among the tropical grain legumes, the most studied species of Vigna are the cowpea and azuki bean. Also genomic resources of only these two Vigna species are available that can be further used for genomic analysis of other Vigna species. This study represents the transferability study of cowpea and azuki bean SSR markers to other Vigna species. Fifty SSR markers developed in cowpea using sequences available in cowpea CGKB database and 95 azuki bean SSR markers from other literature were checked for transferability to nine other Vigna species. It was found that 17 (34%) cowpea SSR and 61 (64.21%) azuki SSR markers were transferable to other Vigna species. These SSR markers derived from cowpea and azuki bean would serve as a valuable tool for genetic analysis and marker assisted selection of agronomically important traits in other Vigna species like blackgram, mungbean, rice bean etc. for which there is either little or no sequence information is available.