Transferability of Microsatellite Markers Among Cool Season Cereals

Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Relatedness in an Andean Potato Collection from Argentina by High-Density Genotyping

Native potatoes are the most diverse among cultivated potato species and thus constitute a valuable source for identifying genes for potato improvement. Nevertheless, high-density mapping, needed to reveal allelic diversity, has not been performed for native Argentinian potatoes. We present a study of the genetic variability and population structure of 96 Andigena potatoes from Northwestern Argentina performed using a subset of 5035 SNPs with no missing data and full reproducibility. These high-density markers are distributed across the genome and present a good coverage of genomic regions. A Bayesian approach revealed the presence of: (I) a major group comprised of most of the Andean accessions; (II) a smaller group containing the out-group cv. Spunta and the sequenced genotype DM; and (III) a third group containing colored flesh potatoes. This grouping was also consistent when maximum likelihood trees were constructed and further confirmed by a principal coordinate analysis. A group of 19 accessions stored as Andean varieties clustered consistently with group Tuberosum accessions. This was in agreement with previous studies and we hypothesize that they may be reintroductions of European-bred long day-adapted potatoes. The present study constitutes a valuable source for allele mining of genes of interest and thus provides a tool for association mapping studies.

Characterization of some bread wheat genotypes using molecular markers for drought tolerance

Because of its wide geographical adaptation and importance in human nutrition, wheat is one of the most important crops in the world. However, wheat yield has reduced due to drought stress posing threat to sustainability and world food security in agricultural production. The first stage of drought tolerant variety breeding occurs on the molecular and biochemical characterization and classification of wheat genotypes. The aim of the present study is characterization of widely grown bread wheat cultivars and breeding lines for drought tolerance so as to be adapted to different regions in Turkey. The genotypes were screened with molecular markers for the presence of QTLs mapped to different chromosomes. Results of the molecular studies identified and detected 15 polymorphic SSR markers which gave the clearest PCR bands among the control genotypes. At the end of the research, bread wheat genotypes which were classified for tolerance or sensitivity to drought and the genetic similarity within control varieties were determined by molecular markers. According to SSR based dendrogram, two main groups were obtained for drought tolerance. At end of the molecular screening with SSR primers, genetic similarity coefficients were obtained that ranged from 0.14 to 0.71. The ones numbered 8 and 11 were the closest genotypes to drought tolerant cultivar Gerek 79 and the furthest genotypes from this cultivar were number 16 and to drought sensitive cultivar Sultan 95. The genotypes as drought tolerance due to their SSR markers scores are expected to provide useful information for drought related molecular breeding studies.