Fifty microsatellite markers for Japanese quail

A Japanese quail genomic library enriched for (CA/GT)n simple sequence repeats was screened and positive clones were sequenced. Fifty original microsatellite sequences were isolated that consisted mainly of perfect repeats of the dinucleotide (CA/GT)n motif and a corresponding number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer pairs complementary to unique DNA sequences flanking the microsatellite repeats were designed to detect the repeats. Fortysix percent (23 of 50) of the markers revealed polymorphism in two unrelated quail individuals (one male and one female) randomly sampled from a population of wild quail origin. All 50 primer pairs were tested in the PCR for their ability to amplify chicken genomic DNA. Amplification products were obtained for 14 (28.0%) of the markers at the annealing temperature optimized for quail. These results provide an opportunity to begin characterizing the quail genome for the development of a genetic map for this economically valuable species and the eventual construction of a comparative genetic map in Phasianidae, which comprises a number of agriculturally important species of poultry.