Abstract Sugarcane has become an increasingly
important first-generation biofuel crop in tropical and
subtropical regions. It has a large, complex, polyploid
genome that has hindered the progress of genomic
research and marker-assisted selection. Genetic mapping
and ultimately genome sequence assembly
require a large number of DNA markers. Simple
sequence repeats (SSRs) are widely used in genetic
mapping because of their abundance, high rates of
polymorphism, and ease of use. The objectives of this
study were to develop SSR markers for construction of
a saturated genetic map and to characterize the
frequency and distribution of SSRs in a polyploid