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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » National Clonal Germplasm Repository » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #253370
Title: Microsatellite Markers: Valuable in Vaccinium L.

Author
item Bassil, Nahla

Submitted to: Blueberry Research Extension North American Workers Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2010
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Clonal Germplasm Repository) (USDA, ARS, NCGR), Corvallis, maintains a collection of blueberry and relatives that contains > 1700 genotypes from 33 countries. The mission of the NCGR is to acquire, preserve, evaluate, document, and distribute crop germplasm. Microsatellite [syn. simple sequence repeat (SSR)] markers provide a unique fingerprint for identifying plants and are useful for genetic diversity analysis and in saturating genetic maps. The NCGR Genetics Lab was the first to develop 49 such markers. These microsatellite markers were used in many studies that included: Fingerprinting blueberry, cranberry and ohelo berry; evaluating genetic diversity of wild and cultivated blueberry and southern highbush blueberry cultivars; assessing the effect of wide hybridization on genetic diversity of the cultivated blueberry; populating the ‘Draper’ x ‘Jewel’ genetic map; supplying a source of useful markers in 22 species representing nine bilberry sections; and future use in population genetic analyses in some bilberry species. Over 450 potential microsatellite markers were recently developed and will provide a valuable resource for the blueberry research and breeding community.

Technical Abstract: The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Clonal Germplasm Repository) (USDA, ARS, NCGR), Corvallis, maintains a collection of Vaccinium L. that contains > 1700 accessions representing 66 species from 33 countries. The mission of the NCGR is to acquire, preserve, evaluate, document, and distribute crop germplasm. Microsatellite [syn. simple sequence repeat (SSR)] markers provide a unique fingerprint for identifying germplasm accessions and are useful for genetic diversity analysis and in saturating genetic maps. The NCGR Genetics Lab was the first to develop 39 SSR primer pairs from expressed sequence tags (EST) and 10 SSR primer pairs from a genomic microsatellite-enriched library of ‘Bluecrop’. SSR markers from these 49 primer pairs were identified for providing unique fingerprints for blueberry, cranberry and ohelo berry; evaluating genetic diversity of wild and cultivated blueberry and southern highbush blueberry cultivars; assessing the effect of wide hybridization on genetic diversity and heterozygosity of the cultivated blueberry; populating the tetraploid ‘Draper’ x ‘Jewel’ linkage map; supplying a source of useful markers in 22 species representing nine Vaccinium sections; and future use in population genetic analyses in diploid Vaccinium section Myrtillus taxa such as V. calycinum, V. reticulatum, V. scoparium and V. praestans. Over 450 SSR primer pairs were recently developed and will provide a valuable resource for the Vaccinium research and breeding community.