A UNIVERSAL FINGERPRINTING SET FOR RED RASPBERRY

Abstract

Red raspberry, Rubus idaeus L., is the most economically important fruit crop in the highly diverse Rubus subgenus Idaeobatus. This subgenus also includes black raspberry R. occidentalis L. The USDA-ARS National Clonal Germplasm Repository (Corvallis, Ore.), is responsible for preserving a Rubus collection of 1940 accessions that includes 370 red raspberry genotypes originating from 26 countries. These red raspberry clones are maintained as potted plants in screenhouses. Microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can be used for rapid identity verification. The objective of this study was to develop a universal SSR fingerprinting set for establishing genetic profiles for red raspberry accessions and enabling comparison of genotypes between collections. We tested 24 SSRs for ease of scoring and polymorphism in 35 red raspberry accessions common to both the NCGR and the James Hutton Institute. Ten additional species genotypes with edible berries, including Rubus subsp. Rubus and R. trivialis Mich., the American black raspberry (R. occidentalis), purple raspberry (R. ×neglectus Peck) and two Asian black raspberry species (R. biflorus Buch.-Ham. ex Sm. and R. niveus Thunb.) were also examined. Six SSRs were easy to score, polymorphic, and mapped to five of the seven red raspberry linkage groups. They were amplified in two multiplexes and were successful in comparing fingerprints from eight red raspberry accessions at both genebanks. The fingerprinting set differentiated between the unique accessions. This protocol is recommended for scientists and industry for raspberry identity verification.