Genetic diversity in Vaccinium corymbosum, V. australe, and V. angustifolium based on microsatellite analysis

Abstract

Poland research center for cultivar testing (COBORU) certified two Lithuanian cultivars 'Freda' and 'Danutė' of blueberry at the end of 2011. These two cultivars have passed the international expertise and satisfied all the requirements for varieties distinctness, uniformity and stability. According to that we decided to accomplish genetic analysis using microsatelite markers and compare 54 genotypes of highbush, lowbush and half-highbush blueberry, that is new Lithuanian cultivars, up-and-coming New Zelandand German genotypes (cultivars and selected clones) and variuos certified cultivars. Using eight of thirty microsatellite markers (SSRs) to determine genetic diversity between blueberry gentotypes. Total amount of 195 alleles were detected with eight primers. They ranged from 4 to 37 per primer. The most unique alleles were determined for genotypes of high bush blueberry. The genotypes of New Zealand and German breeding were characteristic of 8 unique allele sand Lithuanian cultivars contained 9 unique alleles. Cluster analysis was performed by the UPGMA classified 54 genotypes into two clusters, Lithuanian cultivars ‘Danutė’ and ‘Freda’ was in one cluster with N. Zeland varieties. This work was partly supported by project "Promotion of Student Scientific Activities" (VP1-3.1-ŠMM-01-V-02-003) from the Research Council of Lithuania (D.M.-B.). This project is funded by the Republic of Lithuania and European Social Fund under the 2007-2013 Human Resources Development Operational Programme’s priority 3.