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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #357702
Research Project: Evaluation and Genetic Improvement of Woody Ornamental Landscape Plants

Location: Floral and Nursery Plants Research

Title: Transferability of microsatellite markers across eleven species of Magnolia L

Author
item THAMMINA, CHANDRA - Rutgers University
item von Kohn, Christopher
item Pooler, Margaret

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/11/2018
Publication Date: 2/17/2019
Citation: Thammina, C., Von Kohn, C.M., Pooler, M.R. 2019. Transferability of microsatellite markers across eleven species of Magnolia L. HortScience. 54:188-193. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI13605-18.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI13605-18

Interpretive Summary: The genus Magnolia comprises over 130 species distributed predominantly in temperate and tropical regions in Southeast Asia. The plants are valued worldwide for their ornamental traits or for timber, medicinal products, and in trade. Despite their favored status, many species of Magnolia are faced with threats from logging, agricultural land use, development, and collection, and are at risk of extinction. Conservation of these species through habitat preservation and in ex situ collections is needed to prevent extinction; molecular tools can be an effective tool in making decisions about plant conservation. ARS scientists in Beltsville, MD tested DNA markers developed previously for Magnolia ashei to see if they could be used in other species of Magnolia. They found that of the 64 markers tested, 50 were useful in ten other species The SSR primers described here provide a valuable tool in developing conservation strategies for this important genus.

Technical Abstract: The genus Magnolia (Magnoliaceae) comprises over 130 species distributed predominantly in temperate and tropical regions in Southeast Asia and is valued worldwide for its ornamental traits as well as for timber, medicinal products, and in trade. Despite their favored status, many species of Magnolia are faced with threats from logging, agricultural land use, development, and collection, and are at risk of extinction. Conservation of these species through habitat preservation and in ex situ collections is needed to prevent extinction. To provide a tool for conservation of Magnolia species, microsatellite markers developed previously for Magnolia ashei were tested in ten other species of Magnolia to determine their transferability across species. Of the 64 primer pairs tested, 21 amplified alleles in the expected size range in all samples; 11 primer pairs amplified clean products in most, but not all, the species; 18 primer pairs consistently amplified a PCR product in most species, but had either low peak height, or other amplification issues; and 14 primers showed excessive stutter, non-specific amplification, or no amplification. A total of 129 alleles from 11 primers were used to create a UPGMA dendrogram, which provided strong evidence that the primers developed in M. ashei are representative of the allelic diversity in the genus, as the major clusters in the dendrogram followed the taxonomic relationships reported by others.