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

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 4.47

BAC LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION OF THE APOSPOROUS SPECIES PASPALUM SIMPLEX: ISOLATION OF BAC CLONES HARBOURING APOMIXIS-LINKED MARKERS

Calderini O.*, Thomas A.**, Pupilli F.*, Busti A.*, Donnison I.**, Arcioni S.*

*) IRMGPF-CNR Perugia, Italy

**) IGER, Aberystwyth, UK

apomixis, Paspalum simplex, BAC library

Apomixis is the ability of several plant species to reproduce asexually through seed. Apomixis techology applied to sexual crops would allow the fixation of any genotype thus simplyfing breeding schemes. We have undertaken a physical mapping strategy to isolate the apomixis related region in our model species Paspalum simplex. For this purpose a Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of an apomictic plant of Paspalum simplex was constructed. The library contains 43008 clones with an average insert size of 88kb, providing a genome coverage of approximately 2.7x. The library DNA was pooled to perform a PCR screen with an apomixis-linked SCAR and positive clones were identified. Work is progressing in the isolation of other BAC clones with apo-related Scars and in the identification of candidate genes by sequencing the isolated BAC clones.