Linkage mapping of fifty-eight new rat microsatellite markers

Fifty-eight new anonymous simple sequence repeats (SSR) were generated and mapped to various rat chromosomes. Among them two genes (rat homologs for human cadherin-14 and mouse fibroblast growth factor-related protein) were mapped on Chromosomes (Chrs) 2 and 11 respectively. The majority of markers were generated from a small insert genomic library specific to Chr 11, 13, 14, and 15. Twenty new markers were mapped to Chr 13, which is known to contain a blood pressure quantitative trait locus (QTL). Several approaches to obtain microsatellite markers are described. The protocols and newly generated markers should be useful for ongoing rat genome project.