Plant & Animal Genomes XV Conference

January 13-17, 2007
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Molecular Genetic Tagging Of Beta vulgaris ssp. Maritima-Derived Resistance To The Sugar Beet Cyst Nematode, Heterodera Schachtii.

John J. Weiland¹ , Nevena Nagl² , J. Mitchell McGrath³ , Lee Panella⁴ , Robert T. Lewellen⁵

¹  USDA-ARS, RRVARC, Fargo, ND 58105 USA

²  Institute for Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia

³  USDA-ARS, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48834 USA

⁴  USDA-ARS, Crop Production Laboratory, Fort Collins, CO 80526 USA

⁵  USDA-ARS, Sugarbeet Production Laboratory, Salinas, CA 93905 USA

Resistance in commercial sugar beet hybrids to the sugar beet cyst nematode (SBCN) principally has been based on the Hs1 gene from the wild beet Beta procumbens, yet incorporation of this resistance has been detrimental to crop yield in nematode-free fields. Accessions of B. vulgaris ssp maritima were found to possess individuals exhibiting reduced cyst counts of the SBCN. These were used to produce segregating families of sugar beet by selection after recurrent back-crossing with a susceptible population C931. Individual plants from populations C927-4 and CN921-306, derived from different accession sources of B. vulgaris ssp maritima, were evaluated for reaction to SBCN in greenhouse assays. Data were used to group plants as either highly resistant or highly susceptible to SBCN. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis applied to the DNA samples from grouped plants revealed candidate amplicon markers associated with the nematode resistance. Successful conversion of RAPD markers to sequence tagged site (STS) markers permitted rapid marker evaluation of additional individuals from these populations as well as materials from a separate SBCN resistance-breeding program. The relationship between the markers obtained from the two different populations and our current understanding the B. vulgaris ssp. martima-derived resistance to the SBCN will be discussed.