Morphological, cytological and BSA-based testing on limited segregation population AFLPs

Cytoplasmic male sterility (cms) in rye (Secale cereale L.), especially cytoplasma PAMPA, is used commercially in hybrid beeding programmes. The development of molecular markers that are tightly linked to the numerous genes coding for pollen fertility is expected to have great impact in the field. Morphological and cytological analyses of plants from a three-way cross C394: [(S67P/94 x S38/94) x CHD296] indicated the presence of at least several genes acting at different stages of pollen grain development, and proved the concurrence of both approaches in plant classification. The AFLP technique combined with the Bulk Segregant Analysis (BSA) were applied to identify DNA fragments linked to the genes of interest. All the 256 possible primer pair combinations based on the Msel and EcoRI restriction sites generated distinct band patterns allowing the identification of 31143 DNA fragments, visualised using the isotopic method. On average, any given primer combination generated 122 fragments. Among 1111 and 431 potential genetic markers respectively identified in the restorer form and the maternal lines, 775 and 295 were present in the F2 population. These numbers were then reduced to 109 and 51. The identified DNA fragments were tested on a limited segregating population, C394-F2, in order to eliminate false signals and to select markers for a future marker-assisted selection programme. Twenty-five markers were selected. Four of these markers were not identified via the BSA approach, indicating that if a highly polymorphic component is used for a cross, or a polygenic trait is studied, then the use of a limited population may be required.