CHARACTERIZATION OF 65 BOVINE MICROSATELLITES

Microsatellites or simple sequence repeat (SSR) polymorphisms are used widely in the construction of link-age maps in many species. High lev els of polymorphism coupled with the ease of analysis of the polymeras e chain reaction (PCR) have resulted in this type of maker being one o f the most widely used for genetic analysis. In this paper we describe 58 polymorphic bovine microsatellites that were isolated from insert size selected bovine genomic libraries. Primer sequences, number of al leles, and heterozygosity levels in cattle reference families are repo rted. Chromosomal locations for 47 of these microsatellites as well as for 7 previously described systems derived from entries in the Genban k or EMBL databases have been determined. The markers map to 24 synten ic or chromosomal locations. Polymorphic bovine microsatellites were e stimated to occur, on average, every 320 kb, and there is no evidence of clustering in the genome. Thirty of the bovine-derived microsatelli te systems gave specific and polymorphic products in sheep, adding to the number of useful markers in that species.