Use of Microsatellite Markers in Poultry Research

Abstract

Microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), or short tandem repeats (STRs), discovered in 1981, are tandemly repeated motifs of 1-6 nucleotides found in all prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. They are present in both coding and non-coding regions. In addition to being highly variable and polymorphic, microsatellites are also easy to genotype and densely distributed throughout eukaryotic genomes, making them the preferred genetic marker for high resolution genetic mapping. The use of DNA marker technology in poultry as a strains identification has progressed rapidly during the last decade. This review summarize the use of microsatellite as molecular markers in poultry research, especially in some genetic resources of economically important species such as chickens, quails, ducks, goose, turkey and other birds. Also we discuss its limitations and benefits including its simplicity and easy use in the laboratory.