First genetic linkage map of Taraxacum koksaghyz Rodin based on AFLP, SSR, COS and EST-SSR markers.

Marina Arias,Monica Hernandez,Naroa Remondegui,Koen Huvenaars,Enrique Ritter,Peter Van Dijk

doi:10.1038/srep31031

Abstract

Taraxacum koksaghyz Rodin (TKS) has been studied in many occasions as a possible alternative source for natural rubber production of good quality and for inulin production. Some tire companies are already testing TKS tire prototypes. There are also many investigations on the production of bio-fuels from inulin and inulin applications for health improvement and in the food industry. A limited amount of genomic resources exist for TKS and particularly no genetic linkage map is available in this species. We have constructed the first TKS genetic linkage map based on AFLP, COS, SSR and EST-SSR markers. The integrated linkage map with eight linkage groups (LG), representing the eight chromosomes of Russian dandelion, has 185 individual AFLP markers from parent 1, 188 individual AFLP markers from parent 2, 75 common AFLP markers and 6 COS, 1 SSR and 63 EST-SSR loci. Blasting the EST-SSR sequences against known sequences from lettuce allowed a partial alignment of our TKS map with a lettuce map. Blast searches against plant gene databases revealed some homologies with useful genes for downstream applications in the future.

Highlights

Taraxacum koksaghyz Rodin (TKS) has been studied in many occasions as a possible alternative source for natural rubber production of good quality and for inulin production
The parents in the cross were highly polymorphic for the Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) markers, consistent with the high amount of AFLP variation observed in a previous Genetic Diversity Analysis of TKS germplasm collected in 20085
We have constructed an integrated, high density map of Taraxacum koksaghyz Rodin which contains over 500 markers on the eight linkage groups

Summary

Introduction

Taraxacum koksaghyz Rodin (TKS) has been studied in many occasions as a possible alternative source for natural rubber production of good quality and for inulin production. We have constructed the first TKS genetic linkage map based on AFLP, COS, SSR and EST-SSR markers. Rubber production from rubber tree is not flexible since it takes 7–8 years before a rubber tree can be tapped for the first time These factors drive the search for alternative or additional natural rubber crops. In addition to rubber TKS roots contain inulin (25–40% on dry weight basis in wild germplasm[2]). This poly-fructan is a valuable by-product that can be used in food as dietary fibre or in non-food as building blocks for bio plastics or bio fuels. Continental expects serial production within ten years[4,5]

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