EST-STR MINING FROM DENDROBIUM NOBILE

Dendrobium nobile is a herb and floral plant, but the studies at the genomic scale on this species are rare. Through the computer-facilitated data mining, a total of 2122 short tandem repeat (STR) loci that contain motifs in length ranged from 2bp to 7bp and with 3 or more repeats were identified from an EST collection of Dendrobium nobile . Analysis on the STR frequency indicates that group of 3bp-STR is most abundant, while those with 2bp- and 6bp-motif also enriched in expressed genes. Generally, the number of repeats and the distribution range of STRs decreases with the length of motif. A total of 439 STRs are gene-specific hosted, suggesting a co-evolution between these STR loci and the specific functional genes. These results will facilitate the comparative studies between Dendrobium nobile and other plants at the genomic scale.