Transference of microsatellite markers from Eucalyptus spp to Acca sellowiana and the successful use of this technique in genetic characterization

ABSTRACT

The pineapple guava (Acca sellowiana), known in portuguese as the goiabeira-serrana or "Feijoa", is a native fruit tree from southern Brazil and northern Uruguay that has commercial potential due to the quality and unique flavor of its fruits. Knowledge of genetic variability is an important tool in various steps of a breeding program, which can be facilitated by the use of molecular markers. The conservation of repeated sequences among related species permits the transferability of microsatellite markers from Eucalyptus spp. to A. sellowiana for testing. We used primers developed for Eucalyptus to characterize A. sellowiana accessions. Out of 404 primers tested, 180 amplified visible products and 38 were polymorphic. A total of 48 alleles were detected with ten Eucalyptus primer pairs against DNA from 119 A. sellowiana accessions. The mean expected heterozygosity among accessions was 0.64 and the mean observed heterozygosity 0.55. A high level of genetic diversity was also observed in the dendrogram, where the degree of genetic dissimilarity ranged from 0 to 65 percent among the 119 genotypes tested. This study demonstrates the possibility of transferring microsatellite markers between species of different genera in addition to evaluating the extent of genetic variability among plant accessions.