Isolation of SSR Markers from Zoysiagrass

The genus Zoysia consists of 16 species that are naturally distributed on sea coasts and grasslands around the Pacific. In Japan, five species of natural zoysiagrasses have been identified from southern Hokkaido to the southwest islands. Of these, Z. japonica Steud. and Z. matrella Merr. have been utilized extensively as turf in Japan and other countries in East Asia. Linkage maps based on RFLP and AFLP markers have been reported in Zoysia (Yaneshita et al., 1999, Cai et al., 2004). Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers have the advantages of being PCR-based and multiallelic. They are highly polymorphic compared to other types of markers such as RFLPs and AFLPs, and are widely used in linkage map construction, gene tagging and QTL mapping. However, only few SSR markers from zoysiagrass have been reported. The objectives of this study were to develop zoysiagrass SSRs in larger numbers and to map them on to an AFLP-based linkage map