Abstract: Tenebrio molitor is a well known model insect. Although a lot of achievements have been made in many research aspects related to this insect, only very few molecular/genetic resources are available. In this study, a high-throughput method was used for discovering the simple sequence repeat (SSR) genetic markers from this beetle. In total, 1 249 SSR genetic markers were developed from the previously constructed trancriptome database. The majority of them contained mono-and trinucleotide motifs (44.44% and 41.15%, respectively), and A/T (42.70%) was the most abundant motif. Except for mononucleotide, the SSRs with five repeat units were the most common, with the frequency of 30.90%. Base on the identified SSRs, 1 004 pairs of primers were designed, of which a maximum of 5 pairs of alternative primers were designed from a single SSR. The SSRs identified here will constitute an important resource for marker-assisted investigation in functional and comparative genomics of T. molitor.

Key words: Tenebrio molitor, transcriptome, microsatellite, genetic marker, primer