Chloroplast and nuclear DNA markers to characterize cultivated and spontaneous Ribes

Abstract

Nine universal cpSSR markers were tested on a representative group of cultivated accessions and spontaneous ribes populations. All primer combinations, with the exception of ccmp8, underwent amplification. Monomorphic alleles were detected at the ccmp2, ccmp3, ccmp4, ccmp5, ccmp7, ccmp9 primer pairs. Two and four polymorphic alleles were observed at the ccmp6 and ccmp10 loci, respectively. These six alleles combined in five different haplotypes, two of which were found in the cultivated accessions, and three only in the spontaneous populations. AFLP analysis was also performed to better define the relationships among cultivated and spontaneous varieties, and to compare nuclear markers with chloroplast microsatellites. AFLP data were able to distinguish clearly all cultivars, while in spontaneous populations the detected polymorphisms were too low. In conclusion, cpSSR markers can be considered useful in the characterisation of ribes accessions. Thus, the combination of this tool with nuclear markers, such as AFLP, could help in distinguishing and characterising each cultivated accession, and in defining population genetic parameters in the study of spontaneous Ribes species.