Abstract
The success of plant breeding in the coming years will be associated with access to new sources of variation, which will include landraces and wild relatives of crop species. In order to access the reservoir of favourable alleles within wild germplasm, knowledge about the genetic diversity and the population structure of wild species is needed. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is one of the most important wild crops growing in the forests of Northern European countries, noted for its nutritional properties and its beneficial effects on human health. Assessment of the genetic diversity of wild bilberry germplasm is needed for efforts such as in situ conservation, on-farm management and development of plant breeding programmes. However, to date, only a few local (small-scale) genetic studies of this species have been performed. We therefore conducted a study of genetic variability within 32 individual samples collected from different locations in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Germany, and analysed genetic diversity among geographic groups. Four selected inter-simple sequence repeat primers allowed the amplification of 127 polymorphic loci which, based on analysis of variance, made it possible to identify 85 % of the genetic diversity within studied bilberry populations, being in agreement with the mixed-mating system of bilberry. Significant correlations were obtained between geographic and genetic distances for the entire set of samples. The analyses also highlighted the presence of a north-south genetic gradient, which is in accordance with recent findings on phenotypic traits of bilberry.
Highlights
The success of plant breeding over the past century has been associated with a narrowing of the available genetic diversity within elite germplasm of species
Polymerase chain reaction assays using four primers selected in the initial tests allowed 127 Inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) loci to be amplified from the DNA samples derived from 32 bilberry individuals
Advances in genotyping techniques combined with more sophisticated statistical methods provide the means by which among- and within-population genetic diversity can be estimated in the absence of any prior specific information
Summary
The success of plant breeding over the past century has been associated with a narrowing of the available genetic diversity within elite germplasm of species. Zoratti et al — Genetic diversity and population structure of an important wild berry crop the challenges that lie ahead associated with global environmental changes (Feuillet et al 2008). Many advances are still needed to access the extensive reservoir of favourable alleles within wild germplasm. These include increasing our understanding of the molecular basis for key traits and expanding existing phenotyping and genotyping of germplasm collections (Feuillet et al 2008). Knowledge of the genetic diversity and the population structure of wild species is crucial for their management as well as conservation (Burdon and Wilcox 2007; Zhao et al 2014)
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