Background Dense genetic maps, together with the efficiency and accuracy of their construction, are integral to genetic studies and marker assisted selection for plant breeding. primer together with its unlabelled counterpart, plus an adapter-based primer with two bases of selection on the 3′ end. The introduction of the unlabelled specific primer helped to optimise the fluorescent signal across the range of fragment sizes expected, and eliminated the need for extensive dilutions of PCR amplicons. The software (GeneMarker Version 1.6) used for the high-throughput data analysis provided an assessment of amplicon size in buy 134448-10-5 nucleotides, peak areas and fluorescence intensity in a table format, so providing additional information content for each marker. The method has been tested in a small-scale study with 12 pea accessions resulting in 467 polymorphic fluorescent SSAP markers of which 260 were identified as having been mapped previously using the buy 134448-10-5 radio-labelling technique. Heterozygous individuals from pea cultivar crosses were identifiable after peak area data analysis using the fluorescent SSAP method. Conclusion As well as developing a rapid, and high-throughput marker method for genetic studies, the fluorescent SSAP system improved the accuracy of amplicon scoring, increased the available marker number, improved allele discrimination, and was sensitive enough to identify heterozygous loci in F1 and F2 progeny, indicating the potential to develop high-throughput codominant SSAPs. Background The SSAP marker method described by Ellis et al. [1] for pea assays insertion sites for PDR1, a Ty1-copia like retrotransposon found at about 200 copies per haploid genome. These SSAP markers have allowed Tmem1 the integration of Pisum genetic maps from different populations especially where there are common parents [1]. Many other transposable elements have been captured as markers for mapping and diversity analysis in a wide range of plant species including pea [1-4], barley [5], Hibiscus [6], potato [7], sweetpotato [8], cotton [9], agave [10], wheat [11], vine [12], Vicia [13], lettuce [14], cashew [15] and cucumber [16]. Though these studies all use SSAP markers, there are fundamental differences in the generation of the DNA template and subsequent amplification. In many of these cases [4-16] the SSAP approach was AFLP-like [17] in that it reduced amplicon complexity with a double restriction enzyme digest, using a frequent and a rare cutting enzyme, followed by the appropriate adapter ligation. PCR amplification was then carried out in two stages: first a pre-amplification with the adapter based primers and limited base selection, followed by a re-amplification with a labelled specific primer and one adapter primer with additional bases of selection. The majority of marker amplicons produced were generally in the 50 C 500 base-pairs (nt) range. For pea the SSAP marker method, based on PDR1 the relatively low copy number Ty1-copia C like retrotransposon insertions [1,2] or on the high copy number transposable elements Pis1 and Cyclops [3,4,18], has been used for mapping and diversity analysis. This method involves a single restriction digest and adapter ligation, and requires no pre-amplification. This approach therefore does not involve an enzyme digestion based complexity reduction as in buy 134448-10-5 AFLP [17]; it is a multiplexed, manual, 33P labelled, PAGE (polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) system with marker amplicons in the range ca. 100 C 1300 nucleotides (nt) that appears to be suitable for conversion to automation and fluorescent amplicon detection. To enable cross-referencing of existing SSAP markers between the radio-labelled method and fluorescent approaches, the range of amplicon sizes resulting from both techniques needed to be the same, and the correspondence between the band pattern from 33P PAGE and fluorescent peaks needed to be established. Here we describe the conversion from a manual radio-labelling method to a high-throughput automated system, the capture of PDR1 retroelement related fluorescent SSAP markers in the range 100 C 1300 nt and their use in pea genetics. We also describe the development of codominant markers using the analysis of fluorescent peak areas to calculate dosage ratios for both F1 and F2 individuals, and discuss the potential use of these markers with their improved information content. Results and discussion Fluorescent SSAP marker development The most common.