Genetic variation in polyploid forage grass: Assessing the molecular genetic variability in the Paspalumgenus

Abstract

BackgroundPaspalum (Poaceae) is an important genus of the tribe Paniceae, which includes several species of economic importance for foraging, turf and ornamental purposes, and has a complex taxonomical classification. Because of the widespread interest in several species of this genus, many accessions have been conserved in germplasm banks and distributed throughout various countries around the world, mainly for the purposes of cultivar development and cytogenetic studies. Correct identification of germplasms and quantification of their variability are necessary for the proper development of conservation and breeding programs. Evaluation of microsatellite markers in different species of Paspalum conserved in a germplasm bank allowed assessment of the genetic differences among them and assisted in their proper botanical classification.ResultsSeventeen new polymorphic microsatellites were developed for Paspalum atratum Swallen and Paspalum notatum Flüggé, twelve of which were transferred to 35 Paspalum species and used to evaluate their variability. Variable degrees of polymorphism were observed within the species. Based on distance-based methods and a Bayesian clustering approach, the accessions were divided into three main species groups, two of which corresponded to the previously described Plicatula and Notata Paspalum groups. In more accurate analyses of P. notatum accessions, the genetic variation that was evaluated used thirty simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and revealed seven distinct genetic groups and a correspondence of these groups to the three botanical varieties of the species (P. notatum var. notatum, P. notatum var. saurae and P. notatum var. latiflorum).ConclusionsThe molecular genetic approach employed in this study was able to distinguish many of the different taxa examined, except for species that belong to the Plicatula group, which has historically been recognized as a highly complex group. Our molecular genetic approach represents a valuable tool for species identification in the initial assessment of germplasm as well as for characterization, conservation and successful species hybridization.

Molecular Characterizations of Kenyan Brachiaria Grass Ecotypes with Microsatellite (SSR) Markers

“…Since the information on ploidy levels of test ecotypes was not available, SSR fragments were analyzed following a dominant scoring scheme, as used for other polyploidy species [34][35][36][37]. ALS-Binary and Allelobin software [38,39] were used to convert allelic data to binary data (0, 1) where 0 and 1 represent absence and presence of an allele, respectively.…”

Genetic diversity of Danthonia spicata (L.) Beauv. based on genomic simple sequence repeat markers

“…SSR markers have been used to examine genetic diversity in bahiagrass, Paspalum notatum Flüggé (Cidade et al 2008), bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. (Wu et al 2006), creeping bentgrass, Agrostis stolonifera L. (Kubik et al 2009), Kentucky bluegrass, Poa pratensis L. (Honig et al 2010), Paspalum L. (Cidade et al 2013), zoysia grass, Zoysia spp. (Guo et al 2012).…”

Intraspecific tetraploid hybrids of Paspalum notatum: agronomic evaluation of segregating progeny

“…However, in cold temperatures, the plants present reddening of leaves and rhizomes due to flavonoid accumulation, which can be used as a morphological marker to assess cold stress tolerance (Moon et al, 2006). P. notatum Flügge (bahiagrass) is one of the most prevalent native species in southern Brazil, with good forage quality and high resistance to grazing and animal trampling (Cidade et al, 2013).…”