Microsatellite or Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers have evolved to the status of a most versatile and popular genetic marker in a ubiquity of plant systems. Due to their co-dominant, hyper-variable and multiallelic nature, they are the prominent markers of choice for fingerprinting, conservation genetics, plant breeding and phylogenetic studies. Despite its development of a new set of SSR markers for a species remained time consuming and expensive for many years. However, with the recent advancement in genomics, new strategies/protocols are now available for the generation of SSR markers. This review presents an overview on microsatellite markers with a special emphasis on the various strategies used for the development of microsatellite markers

Microsatellite or Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers have evolved to the status of a most versatile and popular genetic marker in a ubiquity of plant systems. Due to their co-dominant, hyper-variable and multiallelic nature, they are the prominent markers of choice for fingerprinting, conservation genetics, plant breeding and phylogenetic studies. Despite its development of a new set of SSR markers for a species remained time consuming and expensive for many years. However, with the recent advancement in genomics, new strategies/protocols are now available for the generation of SSR markers. This review presents an overview on microsatellite markers with a special emphasis on the various strategies used for the development of microsatellite markers.

-Twenty one polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized from turmeric (Curcuma longa L.). These markers were screened across thirty accessions. The number of alleles observed for each locus ranged from two to eight with an average of 4.7 alleles per locus. The discrimination power of these markers ranged from 0.25 to 0.67 (average 0.6). The simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can complement the currently available SSR markers and would be useful for the genetic analysis of turmeric accessions.

Shoot and inflorescence are central physiological and developmental tissues of plants. Flowering is one of the most important agronomic traits for improvement of crop yield. To analyze the vegetative to reproductive tissue transition in Jatropha curcas, gene expression profiles were generated from shoot and inflorescence tissues. RNA isolated from both tissues was sequenced using the Ilumina HiSeq 2500 platform. Differential gene expression analysis identified key biological processes associated with vegetative to reproductive tissue transition. The present data for J. curcas may inform the design of breeding strategies particularly with respect to reproductive tissue transition. The raw data of this study has been deposited in the NCBI's Sequence Read Archive (SRA) database with the accession number SRP090662.

Jatropha curcas is an oil-rich seed crop with huge potentials for bioenergy production. The inflorescence carries a number of processes that are likely to affect the overall yield potentials; floral development, male-to-female flower ratio, floral abscission and fruit set. In this study, a weighted gene co-expression network analysis which integrates the transcriptome, physical and simple sugar data of J. curcas inflorescence was performed and nine modules were identified by means of hierarchical clustering. Among them, four modules (green4, antiquewhite2, brown2 and lightskyblue4) showed significant correlation to yield factors at p≤0.01. The four modules are categorized into two clusters; cluster 1 of green4 and antiquewhite2 modules correspond to number of flowers/inflorescence, total seed weight/plant, number of seeds/plant, and number of fruits/plant, whereas cluster 2 of brown2 and lightskyblue4 modules correspond to glucose and fructose. Descriptive characterizations of cluster 1 show putative involvement in gibberellin signaling and responses, whereas cluster 2 may have been involved in sugar signaling, signal transductions and regulation of flowerings. Our findings present a list of hub genes for J. curcas yield improvement and reproductive biology enhancement strategies.