ABSTRACT
Use of SSR Markers to Identify Potato Germplasm in the INIA Chile Breeding Program

Mónica Mathias R.1, Boris Sagredo D.2*, Julio Kalazich B.2
 

Molecular markers based on Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) are a very efficient tool for potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotype identification and can be very useful for germplasm conservation and management. With the purpose of incorporate this technology into the potato breeding program of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) Chile, a set of 26 SSR markers was evaluated on a sample of 71 potato genotypes. Each marker was characterized for number and combinations of alleles, scoring quality, polymorphic information content (PIC) and discrimination power (D). From the total, only 21 SSR markers showed up scoreable products and the allele number ranged between 2 and 17. The observed allelic combinations among the different potato genotypes ranged from 2 to 47; however, unique genotypes detected by each SSR marker ranged from 0 to 38. The observed (Do) and expected (Dj) discriminatory power ranged from 0.23 to 0.98 and from 0.43 to 0.92, respectively. The seven SSR markers which showed the highest Do scores were STM1009 (0.98), STM1020 (0.97), STM0031 (0.97), STM2013 (0.96), STM1008 (0.94), STM1052 (0.93) and STM0019 (0.91). The STM1009, STM1020 and STM1008 markers are multi-loci SSR, where each one amplifies more than one locus of the potato genome. The utilization of the multi-loci type of marker, or combinations of several SSR markers in either PCR-multiplex or pseudo-multiplex reactions, are good options to increase the speed and reduce the cost of SSR markers application.

Keywords: Solanum tuberosum, microsatellite, DNA-fingerprint.
1 Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Centro Regional de Investigación Carillanca, Casilla 58-D, Temuco, Chile.
2 Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Centro Regional de Investigación Remehue, Casilla 24-D, Osorno, Chile. E-mail: bsagredo@inia.c * Corresponding author.