One hundred and fifty-four microsatellite markers were selected for genomicscanning of the porcine genome and were grouped into amplification sets toreduce the cost and labour required. Thirty amplification sets had two markers(duplex), 20 sets had three markers (triplex) and five sets had four markers(quadruplex) while 14 markers were analysed separately. The selection criteriafor microsatellites were: ease of scoring, level of polymorphism, geneticlocation and ability to be genotyped in a multiplexed polymerase chain reaction(PCR). The selected microsatellites were chosen to span the entire genomeflanked by the porcine linkage map with intervals between adjacent markers of15-20 cM where possible. The utility of this set of markers was demonstrated bylinkage analyses with loci controlling blood plasma protein and red cell enzymepolymorphisms (n = 13), erythrocyte antigens (n = 15), the S blood group, coatcolour and ryanodine receptor from 174 backcross Meishan-White Composite pigs.These loci displayed various forms of inheritance and most (24 loci) have beenplaced in linkage groups. Significant two-point linkages (lod > 3.0) weredetected for each polymorphic marker. These results provide the first linkageassignments for phosphoglucomutase (PGM2) and erythrocyte antigen F (EAF) toSSC8; and serum amylase (AMY) and erythrocyte antigen I (EAI) to SSC18. All ofthe remaining polymorphic loci (n = 24) mapped to previously identified regionsconfirming earlier results. Most of the markers used in this study should beuseful in resource populations of various breed crosses as the number of allelesdetected in a multibreed reference population was one of the selection criteria.