Whole-Genome Characterization and Analysis of Microsatellites in Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) through in silico Approach

Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is the second largest contributor in poultry meat production after chickens. The study of microsatellite organization and distribution is of highly important in genomics and evolutionary students. The in silico mining for microsatellites leverages the power of computational biology to streamline and enhance the discovery of microsatellite markers, and reduce the cost of microsatellite detection. This study aimed at in silico mining microsatellite loci in the genome of domestic turkey. Reference sequences of the different chromosome obtained from NBCI and analyzed using Krait software. Chromosome 4 had the highest number of perfect microsatellites, while chromosome 18 had the lowest. However, chromosome 27 had the highest relative abundance, followed by chromosome. Chromosome 18 again had the lowest relative abundance. For imperfect microsatellites, chromosome 4 had the most imperfect microsatellites and chromosome 18 had the least. A total of 121248 SSR primers were designed. These SSR loci and markers will be instrumental for linkage mapping and significantly improve research on turkey population genetics.