Isolation of thirty-one new porcine microsatellites from a microsatellite enriched microdissected chromosome 8...

Chromosome 8 (SSC8) is an important one in the swine genome because it has been shown to harbor several economically important quantitative trait loci (QTL). The entire porcine chromosome 8 was microdissected and amplified by degenerate oligonucleotide primer (DOP) PCR. The PCR product was then enriched for (CA)n microsatellites by hybridization to a biotinylated CA repeat oligonucleotide and captured by streptavidin-coated magnetic beads. The captured DNA was cloned into a TA cloning vector. Screening with an isotopically labeled CA oligonucleotide probe resulted in the isolation of 31 informative and polymorphic microsatellite clones. Seventeen of those were mapped to chromosome 8, 12 to chromosome 15, 1 to chromosome 10 and 1 to chromosome X. The markers were all placed on the USDA-MARC porcine genetic linkage map.