Author:

Keywords:

evolution, functional relevance, genomic distribution, microsatellite, SSR, Teleostei, Trout Oncorhynchus-Mykiss, Quantitative Trait Loci, Salmon Salmo-Salar, Catfish Ictalurus-Punctatus, Expressed Sequence Tags, Tilapia Oreochromis-Niloticus, Zebrafish Danio-Rerio, DNA Mismatch Repair, Upper Temperature Tolerance, Histocompatibility Class-I, Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Fisheries, Marine & Freshwater Biology, QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI, SALMON SALMO-SALAR, TROUT ONCORHYNCHUS-MYKISS, EXPRESSED SEQUENCE TAGS, CATFISH ICTALURUS-PUNCTATUS, UPPER TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE, HISTOCOMPATIBILITY CLASS-I, SEX-CHROMOSOME EVOLUTION, RAINBOW-TROUT, LINKAGE MAP, 0608 Zoology, 0704 Fisheries Sciences, 3005 Fisheries sciences, 3009 Veterinary sciences, 3109 Zoology

Abstract:

Microsatellites represent codominant molecular genetic markers, which are ubiquitously distributed within genomes. Due to their high level of polymorphism, relatively small size and rapid detection protocols, these markers are widely used in a variety of fundamental and applied fields of life and medical sciences. In the field of aquaculture, microsatellites represent workhorse markers, which are useful for the characterization of genetic stocks, broodstock selection, constructing dense linkage maps, mapping economically important quantitative traits, identifying genes responsible for these traits and application to marker-assisted breeding programmes. In this review, genomic distribution, function, evolution and practical applications of microsatellites are considered, with special emphasis on fish genetics and aquaculture. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.