Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Poster Abstract

EVALUATION AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF ALFALFA ECOTYPES FROM ABRUZZO REGION BY USING AFLP-BASED MOLECULAR MARKERS

TORRICELLI R., BARONE P., FATICHENTI F., VERONESI F.

Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale e Biotecnologie Agroambientali, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia

veronesi@unipg.it

alfalfa, Medicago, AFLP, Retrotransposon, SAMPL

The present research deals with the genetic variability as estimated using AFLP-based molecular-markers within and among alfalfa populations of central Italy. Twenty-four accessions representing a sample of the germplasm sources cultivated in the Abruzzo region were analyzed by screening bulked DNA samples for molecular polymorphisms. In addition two Italian landraces (Italia Centrale and Romagnola) and two varieties (Equipe and Sabina) were used as controls. The classical AFLP approach and two novel ones were employed to estimate the genetic variability.

In fact, with the advent of AFLP technology, two simple approaches for developing a high multiplex/ratio S-SAP and microsatellite-based (SAMPL) molecular markers have become available. They are based on the production of PCR amplified fragments containing, respectively, a repetitive sequence or a microsatellite sequence at one end and a flanking host restriction site (typical AFLP primer) at the other. The level of polymorphisms detected by S-SAPs, SAMPLs and AFLPs were compared. When used in combination with Mse-I primers, S-SAP primers produced an higher number of bands than SAMPLs but lower than AFLPs whereas the percentage of polymorphic products was higher either respect of SAMPLs or AFLPs.

The three classes of molecular markers used, showed to Genetic similarity estimates were examined by cluster analysis and the resulting centroids illustrated the level of genetic variability among the alfalfa local populations of the Abruzzo region.