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

Verona, Italy - 24/27 September, 2003

ISBN 88-900622-4-X

Poster Abstract - 5.41

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RAPD AND AFLP POLYMORPHISMS IN A CORE COLLECTION OF GRASSPEA (LATHYRUS SATIVUS L.)

G.B. POLIGNANO*, C. LOTTI**, V. ALBA*, C. DE GIOVANNI***, P. DELL’ORCO***, L. RICCIARDI***

*) IGV- C.N.R., Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, (Italy)

**) DiSA, Università degli Studi di Foggia, Via Napoli 26, 71100 Foggia, (Italy)

***) DiBCA, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, (Italy)

Lathyrus sativus L., genetic diversity, ODAP content, molecular markers

Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a leguminous crop belonging to the tribe Viciae. For its rusticity, drought tolerance, adaptability to different soils and adverse climatic conditions, it is grown either for stockfeed or human consumption in many Asian and African countries and in the Mediterranean basin. Although rich in proteins (up to 35%), the utilisation of the grain is limited due to the presence of the neurotoxic compound 3-(-N-oxalyl)-L-2,3 diaminopropionic acid (beta-ODAP) that causes neurolathyrism.

The importance of this legume crop in developing countries has promoted the establishment of several breeding programmes mainly aimed at reduce ODAP content in the seeds. In order to define genetic variability and to select grasspea lines with a low ODAP content, a characterisation of a large germplasm collection of Lathyrus from both Italy and foreign countries was performed at the Plant Genetic Institute of Bari (Italy) by scoring bio-agronomic and biochemical data. On the basis of this information, a core collection of 44 entries was selected taking into consideration ODAP content, 100-seed weight, grain protein content.

PCR-based markers have been successfully used to detect and assess the genetic variation in our selected core collection. A study was performed on the 44 entries using 36 pair-wise RAPD primer combinations (DP-RAPD, double primer RAPD) and 5 AFLP primer combinations. A dendrogram of genetic similarity was obtained from polymorphic bands scored in both molecular analyses, comparing the results to detect the efficiency of the two classes of markers to reveal intraspecific polymorphism in the species.