USING THE 454 PYROSEQUENCING-BASED TECHNIQUE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR MICROSATELLITE LOCI IN THE ALPINE PLANT ARABIS ALPINA (BRASSICACEAE)

. Premise of the study: Polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for the inbred alpine perennial plant Arabis alpina to infer life-history parameters and measure patterns of contemporary gene flow within populations. . Methods and Results : Using the 454 pyrosequencing technique, 19 microsatellite primer sets were developed for A. alpina. The primer sets were tested on 60 individuals sampled from three sub-populations in the Swiss Alps. The primers amplified di- and trinucleotide repeats with two to five alleles per locus. . Conclusions: Previous attempts to isolate microsatellite loci in A. alpina using enrichment libraries and cross-amplification were difficult and produced an insufficient number of polymorphic microsatellite loci. In contrast, next-generation sequencing technology was successful in identifying microsatellite repeats in A. alpina. These newly developed microsatellite primers will be useful to further develop A. alpina into a model species for eco-genomic studies.