U.S. Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska
Date of this Version
2011
Citation
HORTSCIENCE VOL. 46(1) JANUARY 2011
Abstract
The genus Chionanthus (Oleaceae Hoffmans. & Link) includes deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs distributed widely in tropical and sub-tropical areas, including a few temperate species. Although Chionanthus species are planted as ornamental garden plants and commercialized for natural products, genetic information for Chionanthus spp. is lacking. We created micro satellite-enriched libraries of Chionanthus retusus Lindl. & Paxton, assembled 1072 contigs, and detected 1010 repeats. The frequency of the repeats decreased with the increase in repeat length, and the most abundant motifs were: AG, AC, AAG, ACC, AT, and ACTC. We screened 384 markers on 12 accessions of four related taxa that included C. retusus, Chionanthus virginicus L., Chionanthus pygmaeus Small, and Osmanthus americanus (L.) Benth. & Hook. A total of 195 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers amplified and discriminated six accessions of C. retusus and 57 SSR markers amplified and discriminated across the four Oleaceae species screened. To identify the best markers to use in future experiments, the ‘‘Unique Pattern Informative Combination’’ (UPIC) values were calculated for all the markers and the 100 markers that were most effective are reported here. The percentage of heterozygous loci across the 384 markers was lowest for C. retusus (29.3%) and highest for O. americanus (68.9%). The SSR markers developed here could assist in taxonomy and hybridization investigations for breeding programs and authentication of varieties used as medicinal plants.