Development and Characterization of Seashore Paspalum SSR Markers and Identification of Markers Associated with Salt Tolerance.

Soil salinity is a major environmental factor limiting plant growth and productivity. Restrictions on water-use due to water shortages have resulted in the use of secondary water sources, which are often higher in salt, to irrigate turf. Furthermore, the increasing use of irrigation, which is highly linked to salinization, creates a demand for salt tolerant turf. Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swartz) is a warm-season turfgrass that survives in sand dunes along coastal sites, brackish ponds, and in estuaries. Some seashore paspalum accessions/cultivars are far more salt tolerant than others. In order to identify genetic regions that are associated with salt tolerance, molecular tools must be developed. In this study, a genomic library, enriched for microsatellites, was created from the salt tolerant accession HI33. This library was sequenced using a Roche 454 instrument, sequences were assembled, and 1,927 sequences containing SSRs were identified. SSR markers were created and will be used for cultivar identification, diversity studies, genome-wide association mapping, and map construction.