The development and screening of EST-SSR markers in Melilotus albus

Melilotus is one of the most important legume forages, however, the lack of molecular markers has limited the development and utilization of Melilotus germplasm resources in breeding programs. In this study, 18 182 EST-SSR primers were developed and screened based on transcriptome data from M. albus. A total of 206 primer pairs from M. albus were found to be polymorphic from a total of 550 pairs of EST-SSR primers screened. A total of 679 alleles were detected with an average of 2.888 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.239 to 0.855, with an average of 0.468. Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon’s information index for 206 pairs of polymorphic primers were 0.169, and 0.239, respectively. The EST-SSRs developed in this study enriches the EST-SSR molecular markers of Melilotus, which will serve as the foundation for exploring the genetic diversity of germplasm resources for marker-assisted breeding.