Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Workshop: Brassicas
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A STUDY OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND GENETIC MAPPING OF BRASSICA NAPUS USING EXPRESSED SEQUENCE TAGS (EST) OF ARABIDOPSIS AND MICROSATELLITE MARKERS OF B. NAPUS

¹ Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, PQ, H3A 1B1, Canada

² DNA LandMarks Inc., 15 rue Jacques-Cartier nord, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, PQ, J3B 8R8, Canada

³ Adjunct member Department of Biology, McGill University, DNA LandMarks Inc., 15 rue Jacques-Cartier nord, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, PQ, J3B 8R8, Canada

DNA markers can help classify germplasm in order to determine genetic similarities among them, how much diversity is present and their evolutionary relationships with wild relatives. The objective of this project is to develop PCR-based markers for fingerprinting, genetic mapping and tagging of agriculturally important traits in Brassica species with the ultimate aim of using them for marker assisted selection. Arabidopsis expressed sequence tags (EST) and microsatellite markers of B. napus have been developed and used as PCR markers for both mapping and genetic diversity studies on B. napus. 300 random Arabidopsis ESTs have been screened and 41 markers have been mapped on a basic genetic map of B. napus along with 541 RFLP and AFLP markers. In addition, these markers have been used in a genetic diversity study involving 24 spring and 24 winter B. napus lines. Another set of EST markers have also been developed by taking Arabidopsis cDNA sequences from the database at known intervals along each chromosome in order to create a comparative map with B. napus. SSR markers were developed using both a GA- and CA-enriched genomic library created from B. napus. At present, one third of the primer sets developed from the GA library and one fourth of those from the CA library have given rise to new markers used for genetic diversity studies where 60% of the GA and 67% of the CA markers have been successfully mapped onto our basic genetic map.