Molecular studies in sugarcane are relatively limited
because of the complex genetic structure, long life cycle and
non availability of reliable sugarcane specific molecular
markers. The use of DNA markers for the genetic analysis
and manipulation of desirable agronomic traits has become
an increasingly useful tool in sugarcane breeding. The
objective of the present study was to evaluate the polymorphic
potential of sugarcane microsatellite markers developed at
National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, IARI, New
Delhi in high and low sugar lines. These microsatellites markers
were screened and validated for their polymorphic, genetic
diversity, cross–transferability and comparative linkage
mapping potential in high and low sugar bulk of two
segregating progenies and 20 each, cultivated high and low
sugar commercial varieties. One hundred sixty eight (28%) of
the microsatellite markers were found to be highly robust and
polymorphic with PIC values ranging from 0.51% to 0.84%.
Forty three (0.26 %) markers contained dinucleotide repeats,
fifty seven (0.34 %) markers contained trinucleotide repeats,
twenty five (0.15 %) and forty three (0.26 %) markers contained
composite repeats. The number of observed allele ranged
from 2 to 11, with an average of five alleles detected per locus.
A total of 977 polymorphic DNA bands were identified, with
their fragment size ranging from 20 to 1380 bp. These