Transferability and use of microsatellite markers for the genetic analysis of the germplasm of some Arachis section species of the genus Arachis

Abstract

The Arachis section is the most important of the nine sections of the genus Arachis because it includes the cultivated peanut, Arachis hypogaea. The genetic improvement of A. hypogaea using wild relatives is at an early stage of development in spite of their potential as sources of genes, including those for disease and pests resistance, that are not found in the A. hypogaea primary gene pool. Section Arachis species germplasm has been collected and maintained in gene banks and its use and effective conservation depends on our knowledge of the genetic variability contained in this material. Microsatellites are routinely used for the analysis of genetic variability because they are highly polymorphic and codominant. The objective of this study was to evaluate the transferability of microsatellite primers and the assay of genetic variability between and within the germplasm of some species of the Arachis section. Fourteen microsatellite loci developed for three different species of Arachis were analyzed and 11 (78%) were found to be polymorphic. All loci had transferability to all the species analyzed. The polymorphic loci were very informative, with expected heterozygosity per locus ranging from 0.70 to 0.94. In general, the germplasm analyzed showed wide genetic variation.

Transferability and characterization of simple sequence repeat markers from Anacardium occidentale to A. humile (Anacardiaceae)

“…Similar transferability rates for microsatellite markers with high levels of polymorphism have been reported in other studies of plants such as Arachis (Bravo et al, 2006) and Hymenaea (Ciampi et al, 2008) or those from different genera such as among the species of the Poaceae family (Elazreg et al, 2011). These results demonstrate that several species, which may or may not be closely related, can be analyzed without the need for designing specific primers.…”

Transferability and characterization of microsatellite markers in five Bromeliaceae species belonging to the subfamilies Pitcairnioideae and Bromelioideae

“…In their evaluation of the percentage of transferability of SSR markers developed from Nicotiana tabacum to other species of the same genus, Moon et al (2008) also found differences in reproducibility of amplifications, with variable fragment sizes, compared to the expected. Bravo et al (2006) argue that there may be considerably variation both in the number of repetitions as well in levels of polymorphism between the species for which SSR markers were previously developed and the species that showed a cross reaction.…”

Utility of AhTE Markers for Genetic and Genomic Studies in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

“…However, certain Arachis species (e.g. A. glandulifera, A. helodes and A. kuhlmannii) showed moderate levels of observed heterozygosity (Bravo et al, 2006). A. helodes showed a heterozygosity of 0.0997, indicating that, on average, 9.97% of individual plants were heterozygous for a locus.…”