Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Poplarville, Mississippi » Southern Horticultural Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #218523
Title: Microsatellites from Kousa dogwood (Cornus Kousa)

Author
item WADL, PHILLIP - ENTOMOLOGY PLANT PATHOL
item WANG, XINGWANG - ENTOMOLOGY PLANT PATHOL
item Scheffler, Brian
item Rinehart, Timothy - Tim
item TRIGIANO, ROBERT - ENTOMOLOGY PLNAT PATHOL

Submitted to: Molecular Ecology Notes
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/11/2007
Publication Date: 12/19/2007
Citation: Wadl, P., Wang, X., Scheffler, B.E., Rinehart, T.A., Trigiano, R. 2007. Microsatellites from Kousa dogwood (Cornus Kousa). Molecular Ecology Notes, online (doi:10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.02062.x)

Interpretive Summary: Cornus kousa Hance is considered by Cappiello and Shadow (2005) to be the Asian counterpart of the North American flowering dogwood (C. florida L.). There are over 100 cultivars of kousa and as with flowering dogwood, the showy bracts are the primary selected ornamental trait and range from white to cream and from red to pink,. Kousa has increased in popularity because it is more resistance to diseases than flowering dogwood (Mmbaga & Sauvé 2004; Ranney et al. 1995). Microsatellites were recently developed for flowering dogwood (Cabe & Liles 2002; Wang et al. 2007). Here, we report the development of microsatellites from C. kousa ‘National’ using a biotin enrichment protocol and testing their cross amplification in 22 kousa cultivars. These microsatellites will be useful in assessing the genetic diversity of the species and diversity among C. kousa cultivars that are sold as ornamental trees. We expect these SSR loci will also detect interspecific hybrids between various Cornus species, including C. florida by C. kousa, which are also available as landscape cultivars.

Technical Abstract: Microsatellite loci were identified from Cornus kousa ‘National’. Primer pairs for 86 loci were developed and of these eight were optimized and screened using genomic DNA from 22 kousa cultivars. All optimized loci were polymorphic and the number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 17. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 0.3 and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.38 to 0.91. These microsatellites will be useful in population studies, and a breeding program for cultivar development of Cornus species.