Analysis of Repeat Markers in highly polymorphic genetic regions of maize genome

Abstract

Maize is one of the most versatile crops, suitable for cultivation in different agro ecological climatic conditions. Maize evolution can be tracked by analyzing DNA polymorphism in the genome. Amongst the various types of DNA polymorphisms, Simple sequence repeat (SSR) are one of the most commonly studied. SSRs result from a biological phenomenon called Replication slippage and are representative of the evolutionary drive acting on a particular loci. Crops adapt under natural or selective pressures and SSR polymorphism results from spontaneous or induced selection. We have analyzed SSR markers in the highly polymorphic regions of the maize genome. It has been found that the nature and identity of SSR markers in polymorphic regions is different from that observed throughout the genome. The polymorphism and its putative reasons are discussed