A second generation linkage map of European sea bass

The BASSMAP consortium, funded by the European Union, has been set up to improve the genomic resources of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and to serve the aquaculture community. The specific aim is to locate genes of known function on the physical map and to compare specific regions among perciforms. A first generation map including 162 microsatellite markers and 25 linkage groups has been published (""check: Chistiakov et al., 2005, Genetics 170: 1821–1826). A second generation linkage map including in total 369 polymorphic microsatellite and AFLP markers includes 34 linkage groups (2n = 24). The total sex-averaged map length measures now 1506 cM (1166 cM in males and 1553 cM in females). The map includes twenty nine Expressed Sequence Tags or genes. Fifty eight markers remain unlinked (11 microsatellites and 47 AFLPs).