Microsatellite Markers in Hazelnut: Isolation, Characterization, and Cross-species Amplification in Corylus

Three microsatellite-enriched libraries of the European hazelnut, Corylus avellana L., were constructed: Library A was enriched for di-nucleotide CA repeats and contained mostly compound repeats; library B for GA repeats which were exclusively perfect; and library C for tri-nucleotide GAA repeats and contained 45% perfect, and 27% imperfect repeats. Twenty-five of 32 primer pairs amplified easy-to-score single loci and were used to investigate polymorphism among twenty C. avellana genotypes and to evaluate cross-species amplification in seven Corylus L. species. Microsatellites were highly heterozygous and polymorphic and were able to distinguish between genotypes of Corylus avellana irrespective of geographical origin. These microsatellite markers will be useful in fingerprinting genotypes of the European hazelnut and other Corylus species, genome mapping, and genetic diversity assessments.