ARS | Publication request: Development and Characterization of Novel, Polymorphic Microsatellite Markers for Oat Crown Rust, Puccinia coronata

Submitted to: Molecular Ecology Resources
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: July 7, 2008
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: We have developed DNA markers that will be useful to study populations of crown rust, the most important fungal pathogen of oats in the U.S. and the world. These markers are highly variable among strains of the crown rust pathogen and appear to be specific to only that species. Rust pathologists and population geneticists will be able to use these markers to study population structure, migration, and selection occurring in the oat crown rust pathogen.

Technical Abstract: We report the development of 37 novel and polymorphic microsatellite markers for oat crown rust, Puccinia coronata. The allelic diversity ranged from 2 to 16 alleles per locus. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 0.971, and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.057 to 0.848. Twenty-two of the loci were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, suggesting a presence of null alleles. All 37 loci were tested against P. graminis and P. triticina showing that these primer pairs are specific to P. coronata.