Interspecies and intergenus transferability of barley and wheat D-genome microsatellite markers

A selection of 147 wheat D-genome and 130 barley genomic simple sequence repeat (gSSR) markers were screened for their utility in Hordeum chilense, as an alien donor genome for cereal breeding. Fifty-eight wheat D-genome and 71 barley PCR primer pairs consistently amplified products from H. chilense. Nineteen wheat D-genome and 20 barley gSSR markers were polymorphic and allowed wide genome coverage of the H. chilense genome. Twenty-three of the wheat D-genome and 11 barley PCR primer pairs were suitable for studying the introgressions of H. chilense into wheat, amplifying H. chilense products of distinct size. In 88% of the markers tested, H. chilense products were maintained in the expected homeologous linkage group, as revealed by the analysis of wheat/H. chilense addition lines. Twenty-nine microsatellite markers (eight gSSRs and 21 expressed sequence tags-SSRs) uniformly distributed across the genome were tested for their utility in genetic diversity analysis within the species. Three genetic clusters are reported, in accordance with previous morphological and amplified fragment length polymorphism data. These results show that it is possible to discriminate the three previously established germplasm groups with microsatellite markers. The reported markers represent a valuable resource for the genetic characterisation of H. chilense, for the analysis of its genetic variability, and as a tool for wheat introgression. This is the first intraspecific study in a collection of H. chilense germplasm using microsatellite markers.