ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR GENETICS STUDIES OF LESQUERELLA FENDLER; A NEW ARID LAND, INDUSTRIAL CROP

Authors: Kaufman, Benjamin; TOMASI, PERNELL - UNIV OF ARIZONA; Richards, Stacy; DIERIG, DAVID

Submitted to: Plant and Animal Genome VX Conference Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/21/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Lesquerella fendleri (Brassicaceae) is a native plant to the Southwestern United States, and a new industrial crop which has evoked interest for its unique oil and hydroxy fatty acid (lesquerolic acid). The difficulty to isolate DNA, due to high polysaccharide content in L. fendleri tissue, was an impediment for applying molecular breeding methods to its domestication and improvement. We are describing here a novel DNA isolation method for this plant. In this procedure, after breaking down the cell walls, the cell nuclei were separated from the cytoplasmatic and intracellular fluids by differential centrifugation in a viscous medium. This preparatory step separates the cellular compartments which contain the desired DNA and the problematic carbohydrates. The DNA is then isolated from the nuclei without interference. High quality DNA was obtained and used successfully in a male-sterility study using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to identify markers that associated with this trait. A sample of 20 plants, composed of ten male sterile plants and 10 male fertile plants, were used for the initial screening. After screening 50 primers, we identified OPL-02, OPL-04, OPL-19, OPZ-11, OPZ-14 as primers that amplify DNA segments potentially diagnostic for fertile or sterile male genotypes. Using the RAPD data we have estimated the L. fendleri genome size to be 1.7 billion. Eighty-six percent of the RAPD were polymorphic, which indicates high genetic variability within L. fendleri.