Abstract
The worldwide demand for potato production requires the constant development of new potato varieties with improved yield, quality, disease resistance, and abiotic tolerance. However, cultivar registration is preceded by a long process to morphologically and physiologically characterize the plants. Notably, this process can be expedited by DNA marker analysis. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs), also known as microsatellites, are the most common reliable DNA markers used to discriminate between genotypes. In this study, 20 potato varieties, including five new genotypes developed in Alberta, Canada, were fingerprinted using 10 SSR markers selected for their high discriminatory power. Different SSRs were amplified from potato DNA using specific primers, and the DNA fragment sizes were analyzed by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two for the SSR marker STPoAc58 to six for STM0030 and STM0037 with an average of 4.4. In addition, a total of 77 unique patterns were observed for the 10 SSR markers. The polymorphic information content ranged from 0.477 to 0.802 with an average of 0.675 per locus. In this study, STM0037, STM1016, and STM1104 were found to be the best SSR markers to detect genetic differences between potato varieties. A minimum of two markers was required to distinguish between all 20 genotypes. Most importantly, this highly informative molecular tool confirmed that the developed potato varieties were genetically different from their respective maternal lines and potentially constituted new cultivars.
Highlights
The cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the most important non-cereal crop in the world and a key component of global food security (Devaux, Kromann, & Ortiz, 2014)
Twenty genotypes of cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) were tested in this study, including five potential new varieties generated through open pollination by a private breeder, John Safroniuk (Wetaskiwin), three maternal lines that served as a source of true botanical seeds, and 12 varieties routinely grown by the breeder that may be paternal lines (Table 1)
Twenty potato varieties were DNA fingerprinted in this study using 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers
Summary
The cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the most important non-cereal crop in the world and a key component of global food security (Devaux, Kromann, & Ortiz, 2014). Each type of DNA marker has its own advantages, SSRs, called microsatellites, have been demonstrated to be the best choice for fingerprinting and evaluating genetic diversity in plants at the species level (Milbourne et al, 1998; Powell et al, 1996; Russell et al, 1997). The sequences flanking an SSR and used to design specific primers are generally conserved in closely related species (Kalia et al, 2011) These characteristics make SSRs a powerful tool for genetic applications, such as genome mapping, diversity analysis, phylogenetic studies of some species, cultivar discrimination, as well as marker-assisted selection in breeding programs (Vieira et al, 2016). The goals of this study were (a) to evaluate the power of discrimination of the different SSR markers for future potato genotype analysis and (b) to confirm that the new varieties developed are genetically different from the maternal lines, which is required for cultivar registration and proprietary rights by the breeder
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