Assessment of genetic diversity of Latvian sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) germplasm using molecular markers

Abstract

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) is becoming an interesting and promising crop in Latvia due to its high content of valuable nutrients and bioactive substances. Increasing horticultural use of sea buckthorn is stimulating also an interest in research and breeding of different sea buckthorn forms for fruit production. Plant material developed from crosses among H. rhamnoides ssp. mongolica, ssp. rhamnoides and ssp. fluviatilis was introduced as well as bred in Latvia to acquire locally well adapted and valuable cultivars. Utilization of available sea buckthorn plant material is dependent on the reasonable genetic diversity evaluation and plant material identification. Therefore 36 sea buckthorn accessions grown in Latvia were characterized using previously tested eight microsatellites or simple sequence repeat (SSR) and sixteen random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Applied markers allowed complete discrimination of the tested sea buckthorn accessions, as well as determination of genetic similarity and relatedness. Some correlation between the cluster analysis of molecular data and the plant material origin and known pedigree was found, which demonstrated the suitability of the utilized markers for the characterization of sea buckthorn germplasm. Higher correspondence with known origin was stated for the set of RAPD markers, which discriminated sea buckthorn accessions according to the place of origin and breeding program. The two applied methods of molecular markers complemented each other and provided genetic information for the Latvian sea buckthorn breeders for development of further hybridization strategy as well as a basic tool for marker assisted selection.