Plant, Animal & Microbe Genomes X Conference

January 12-16, 2002
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Poster: Forest Trees
            

CONTRIBUTION OF MARITIME PINE FOR COMPARATIVE MAPPING IN CONIFERS

¹ INRA, Equipe de Génétique et Amélioration des Arbres Forestiers, BP45,

² Dept. Environmental Horticulture. University of California Davis, CA

³ Forest Research, Applications of Genomic Science, Sala Street, Rotorua,

The sequencing of expressed genes (EST) and the development of Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) provide useful orthologous markers for comparative genome mapping in conifers. If the ordering of genes is maintained, then these species can be considered as a single genetic system. At a more practical level, this would allow to transfer information (QTL, candidate genes) between species. This discipline could also allow studying the evolution of their genome. Several research organisations worldwide are developing primer sets to amplify EST and SSR that are used as anchor-points between the genetic maps of approximately ten conifer species belonging to the Pinaceae. In this study 247 ESTs and 108 SSRs were tested for amplification and polymorphism rate in Pinus pinaster. The SSCP and DGGE techniques made it possible to map 40 ESTs. A total of 10 SSRs were also localized. The map position of these 50 orthologous markers was compared to those obtained in the Pinus taeda and Pinus radiata linkage maps. Overall a good colinearity was obtained between the three species. This report agrees with other pine genome comparisons and seems to show that their genome did not evolve much in term of chromosomal rearrangement since their divergence. This encouraging result should allow interspecific validation of QTL location and will ultimately contribute to the development of marker-assisted selection.