Rapid development of gene-tagged microsatellite markers from bacterial artificial chromosome clones using anchored...

We developed a technique to improve the efficiency of producing TAA repeat microsatellite markers linked to interspecific conserved genes. Template DNA was prepared from cultures derived from single bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) colonies using a simple alkaline lysis miniprep. The presence of conserved genes in each BAC clone was verified by sequencing with gene-specific primers. The BAC templates were directly sequenced using short tandem repeat-anchored primers (STRAPs), consisting of TAA repeats with one or two unique 3' terminal bases. At least one STRAP provided sufficient 3' flanking sequence from each clone for the design of a BAC-specific primer. The BAC-specific primer was used to sequence back through the tandem repeat and obtain 5' flanking sequence, and a second BAC-specific primer was designed for microsatellite genotype analysis. This technique quickly provided microsatellite markers with an average of 15 tandem repeats for the BAC clones tested. The identification of polymorphic microsatellite loci in these clones permits the identification of alleles linked to candidate genes, placement of conserved genes on genetic linkage maps, and integration of linkage and physical maps.