| Summary: | Recently-developed molecular markers are becoming powerful tools, with applications in crop genetics and improvement. Microsatellites, or simple sequence repeats (SSRs), are widely used in genetic fingerprinting, kinship analysis, and population genetics, because of the advantages of high variability from co-dominant and multi-allelic polymorphisms, and accurate and rapid detection. However, more recent evidence suggests they may play an important role in genome evolution and provide hotspots of recombination. This review describes the development of SSR markers through different techniques, and the detection of SSR markers and applications for sugarcane genetic research and breeding, such as cultivar identification, genetic diversity, genome mapping, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, paternity analysis, cross-species transferability, segregation analysis, phylogenetic relationships, and identification of wild cross hybrids. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of SSR markers and highlight some future perspectives.
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