New Microsatellite Markers for Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton

Perilla crop (Perilla frutescens L.) is highly regarded as a health food and traditional food in Korea. However, there is still a lack of Perilla simple sequence repeat (SSR) or microsatellite primer sets for studying genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among accessions of cultivated and weedy types of Perilla crop from East Asia, especially Korea. In our previous study, we obtained 15,991 SSR loci from transcriptome sequencing by RNA-seq in one cultivated type (PF98095) of P. frutescens var. frutescens. 37 novel Perilla SSR primer sets were created for Perilla species based on RNA sequences obtained from transcriptome research. These novel Perilla SSR markers were used to examine the genetic diversity of 15 farmed and weedy Perilla crop accessions. There were 182 verified alleles in 37 loci, with an average of 4.9 alleles per locus and ranging from 2 to 9 alleles per locus. The major allele frequency (MAF) per locus varied from 0.200 to 0.733, with an average of 0.463. The gene diversity (GD) ranged from 0.391 to 0.853, with an average of 0.670. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.624, ranging from 0.315 to 0.838. The novel Perilla SSR markers presented in this work may provide suitable markers for analyzing the genetic diversity and genetic connections of cultivated and weedy Perilla crop varieties. Furthermore, novel Perilla SSR markers derived from transcriptome analysis can be used for cultivar proof of identity, conservation of Perilla germplasm resources, and genetic mapping and designation of relevant genes/QTLs for future Perilla agricultural breeding efforts.