Finger millet is a superior staple food for human beings. Microsatellite or Simple Sequence
Repeat (SSR) marker is a powerful tool for genetic mapping, diversity analysis and plant
breeding. In finger millet, microsatellites show a higher level of polymorphism than other molecular
marker systems. The identification and development of microsatellite markers are extremely expensive
and time-consuming. Only less than 50% of SSR markers have been developed from microsatellite
sequences for finger millet. Therefore, it is important to transfer SSR markers developed
for related species/genus to finger millet. Cross-genome transferability is the easiest and
cheapest method to develop SSR markers. Many comparative mapping studies using microsatellite
markers clearly revealed the presence of synteny within the genomes of closely related species/
genus. Sufficient homology exists among several crop plant genomes in the sequences flanking the
SSR loci. Thus, the SSR markers are beneficial to amplify the target regions in the finger millet
genome. Many SSR markers were used for the analysis of cross-genome amplification in various
plants such as Setaria italica, Pennisetum glaucum, Oryza sativa, Triticum aestivum, Zea mays and
Hordeum vulgare. However, there is very little information available about cross-genome amplification
of these markers in finger millet. The only limited report is available for the utilization of
cross-genome amplified microsatellite markers in genetic analysis, gene mapping and other applications
in finger millet. This review highlights the importance and implication of microsatellite markers
such as genomic SSR (gSSR) and Expressed Sequence Tag (EST)-SSR in cross-genome analysis
in finger millet. Nowadays, crop improvement has been one of the major priority areas of research
in agriculture. The genome assisted breeding and genetic engineering plays a very crucial
role in enhancing crop productivity. The rapid advance in molecular marker technology is helpful
for crop improvement. Therefore, this review will be very helpful to the researchers for understanding
the importance and implication of SSR markers in closely related species.
