The molecular polymorphism evaluation in Salix sp. Romanian accessions – preliminary results

Abstract

Salix is an important energetic genus, but  most of the genotypes are closely related genetically, due to frequent natural hybridisation in nature. Therefore it is of great interest to study its genetic background. In this work a collection of progenitors (Romanian accessions) collected from different locations were investigated to determine their genetic fingerprint in order to be used in future breeding programs. To evaluate the genetic diversity two types of molecular markers were used, namely ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeats) and  DAMD (Direct amplification of minisatellite-region). In the first step 15 ISSR and 5 DAMD markers were analysed to choose those markers that give the best amplification. It was pointed out that all of the primers had complex fingerprints, but those  which generated the most definite patterns were A13 and UBC 818 (ISSR) and 1-URP6R and 4- 14C2 (DAMD).These primers were used to analyze seven different Salix L. samples collected from different locations. It was revealed that a high polymorphism was identified both between different accesions of a species and between species. The high degree of polymorphism for both  minisatellite and microsatellite sequences, emphasized the necessity of increasing markers number to be possible to perform a statistical analysis and to determine the genetic similarities.