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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #249142
Title: Genetic linkage maps of white birches (Betula platyphylla Suk. and B. pendula Roth) based on RAPD and AFLP markers

Author
item JIANG, TING-BO - Northeastern University
item ZHOU, BORU - Northeast Agricultural University
item GAO, FU-LING - Northeastern University
item Guo, Baozhu

Submitted to: Molecular Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/30/2010
Publication Date: 1/2/2011
Citation: Jiang, T., Zhou, B., Gao, F., Guo, B. 2011. Genetic linkage maps of white birches (Betula platyphylla Suk. and B. pendula Roth) based on RAPD and AFLP markers. Molecular Breeding. 27:347-356. DOI:10.1007/s11032-010-9436-y

Interpretive Summary: Genetic linkage maps in plants are usually constructed using segregating populations obtained from crosses between two inbred lines such as rice, maize, or soybean. Such populations are generally not available for forest trees because of time constraints. But tree species have the property of outcrosses and segregating genotypes in F1 progenies to circumvent the limitation. The two-way pseudo-test-cross approach could be generally used to construct linkage maps. As a new tool, it has been helping traditional tree breeding methods through the identification of quantitative trait loci and their integration into marker-assisted selection programs. White birches are typical pioneer tree species in the secondary forest area in the Northeastern China. As their easy regeneration and fast growing traits, white birches have been playing an indispensable ecological role to colonize the lands of harvested forest and lands after forest fire in this region. As a challenge facing researchers as to other tree species, silver birches have a long growth period and take long time for genetic improvement, which make it hard for genetic study and breeding. The molecular markers assisted breeding technology could be applied directly in selection of the progenies according to their genotypes, instead of the traditional methods based on the phenotypes. In this study, we were reporting the genetic linkage map construction from 80 F1 progenies from the cross between Asia white birch and European white birch, using RAPD and AFLP markers and pseudo-testcross mapping strategy. This will establish a basis for developing more detailed linkage map and molecular marker-assistant breeding for white birch trees.

Technical Abstract: Genetic linkage maps in plants are usually constructed using segregating populations obtained from crosses between two inbred lines such as rice, maize, or soybean. Such populations are generally not available for forest trees because of time constraints. But tree species have the property of outcrosses and segregating genotypes in F1 progenies to circumvent the limitation. The two-way pseudo-test-cross approach could be generally used to construct linkage maps. As a new tool, it has been helping traditional tree breeding methods through the identification of quantitative trait loci and their integration into marker-assisted selection programs. White birches are typical pioneer tree species in the secondary forest area in the Northeastern China. As their easy regeneration and fast growing traits, white birches have been playing an indispensable ecological role to colonize the lands of harvested forest and lands after forest fire in this region. As a challenge facing researchers as to other tree species, silver birches have a long growth period and take long time for genetic improvement, which make it hard for genetic study and breeding. The molecular markers assisted breeding technology could be applied directly in selection of the progenies according to their genotypes, instead of the traditional methods based on the phenotypes. In this study, we were reporting the genetic linkage map construction from 80 F1 progenies from the cross between Asia white birch and European white birch, using RAPD and AFLP markers and pseudo-testcross mapping strategy. This will establish a basis for developing more detailed linkage map and molecular marker-assistant breeding for white birch trees.