Development and molecular characterization of 55 novel polymorphic cDNA-SSR markers in faba bean (Vicia faba L.) using 454 pyrosequencing.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a major food source and fodder legume, popularly known for its high content of seed-protein. Its role is critical in crop rotation, and for fixing nitrogen effectively. Polymorphic simple sequence repeat markers from transcript sequences (cDNA; simple sequence repeat [SSR]) were developed for faba bean (Vicia faba). We found that 1,729 SSR loci from 81,333 individual sequence reads and 240 primer pairs were designed and synthesized. In total, 55 primer pairs were found to be polymorphic and scorable consistently when screened in 32 accessions. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 15, frequency of major alleles per locus varied from 0.17 to 0.91, the genotypes number ranged from 2 to 17, observed and expected heterozycosity values ranged from 0.00 to 0.44 and 0.17 to 0.89 and overall PIC values ranged from 0.16 to 0.88 respectively. These markers will be a useful tool for assessing the genetic diversity, understanding the population structure, and breeding patterns of faba bean.