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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #206682
Title: Characterizing Safflower Germplasm with AFLP Molecular Markers

Author
item Johnson, Richard
item Kisha, Theodore
item Foiles, Connie
item Bradley, Vicki

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2005
Publication Date: 4/1/2006
Citation: Johnson, R.C., Kisha, T.J., Foiles, C.L., Bradley, V.L. 2006. Characterizing Safflower Germplasm with AFLP Molecular Markers. In Proceedings of the 6th International Safflower Conference, June 6-10, 2005, Istanbul, Turkey. p. 3-8.

Interpretive Summary: The USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) maintains a collection of safflower germplasm at the Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS), Pullman WA, which currently includes more than 2300 accessions. There are few, if any, publications on the use of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) in safflower. The objective of this research was to examine the diversity of safflower populations and accessions from diverse geographic and genetic sources to determine the utility of AFLP markers to characterize safflower germplasm. Similarity values for eight populations showed that safflower, as a predominately self-pollinating species with out-crossing potential, showed varying amounts of within accession variation. The Arizona wild composite population had the lowest similarity, and given that it is probably the most diverse population of safflower available, this was consistent with expectations, as was the higher similarity of the cultivar Girard. It was also shown that AFLP markers were useful for distinguishing safflower variation within and among different geographic regions. What is needed next is to understand if, and to what extent, molecular characterization and phenotypic characterization of safflower are associated.

Technical Abstract: Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) accessions from the U.S. germplasm collection were characterized using AFLP (Amplified Length Polymorphisms) markers. Separation and scoring of 392 markers was completed using the Beckman CEQ8000 capillary electrophoresis system. Twelve plants from each of eight populations were analyzed for an estimate of within population similarity. Bulked leaves of eight plants of 93 accessions from seven regions (the Americas, China, E. Africa, E. Europe, the Mediterranean, S.C. Asia, and S.W. Asia) were also analyzed to compare within and among regional molecular variation. The within population similarity for the cultivar Girard at 0.91 was significantly higher than six of the seven other accessions tested indicating generally lower diversity. The Arizona Wild Composite (AWC), with high phenotypic diversity, had a similarity of 0.81, which was significantly lower than all other populations. The results were consistent with the expectation that plants within a cultivar would be generally less diverse, and plants from the AWC more diverse. Principal coordinate analysis showed that the Americas overlapped with Europe and E. Africa and to a lesser extent with the Mediterranean and China. However, excluding the Americas and East Europe, the remaining five regions were distinguished by the principal coordinates fairly well, and S.W. Asia was clearly different from all other regions. The results showed that AFLP markers are useful for determining within and among patterns of genetic diversity in safflower germplasm.