Molecular variation and fingerprinting of Leucadendron cultivars (Proteaceae) by ISSR markers.
OBJECTIVE
There are more than 80 species of Leucadendron and most are used as cut flowers. Currently, more than 100 cultivars are used by industry and many of them are interspecific hybrids. The origin of most cultivars is unclear and their genetic diversity and relationships have not been studied. This investigation was carried out to evaluate the genetic variation and relationships among 30 Leucadendron cultivars.


METHODS
ISSR markers were applied to determine the genetic variation and to discriminate Leucadendron cultivars. Sixty-four ISSR primers were screened and 25 primers were selected for their ability to produce clear and reproducible patterns of multiple bands.


RESULTS
A total of 584 bands of 305-2400 bp were amplified, of which 97 % were polymorphic. A dendrogram generated using the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Average based on a distance measure of total character difference showed that the Leucadendron cultivars clustered into two main groups. Twenty-four of the 30 cultivars can be unequivocally differentiated, but identical profiles were observed for three cultivar pairs, 'Katie's Blush' and 'Silvan Red', 'Highlights' and 'Maui Sunset', and 'Yellow Crest' and 'Yellow Devil'.


CONCLUSIONS
ISSR profiling is a powerful method for the identification and molecular classification of Leucadendron cultivars. A fingerprinting key was generated based on the banding patterns produced using two ISSR primers (UBC856 and UBC857). In addition cultivar-specific ISSR bands were obtained for 17 of the 30 Leucadendron cultivars tested.
Pharmawati
Made
M
School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009 WA, Australia. pharmawati@hotmail.com
Yan
Guijun
G
Finnegan
Patrick M
PM
D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D018744:DNA, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D010802:Phylogeny; D039105:Proteaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*
D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D018744:DNA, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers