Analysis of the taxonomic subdivision within the genus Helleborus by nuclear DNA content and genome-wide DNA markers

authored by

Julia Meiners, Thomas Debener, Guenther Schweizer, Traud Winkelmann

Abstract

Helleborus is a genus of herbaceous perennials belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. Within this genus six sections with a total of 22 species are found. The largest section Helleborastrum contains 16 species for which genetic relationships are still unclear. This study represents the first genetic analysis in the genus Helleborus, including the two newly described species H. liguricus and H. abruzzicus based on multilocus amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers with a genome-wide distribution in combination with nuclear DNA content data. Chromosome analyses of roots tips revealed a number of 2. n= 32 for the selected species, which was congruent with previous observations. The nuclear DNA content of Helleborus was estimated by flow cytometry applying propidium iodide staining and varied between 18 and 33. pg/2C, depending on the species. For AFLP analyses, 19 out of the 22 Helleborus species were studied using 10 AFLP primer combinations, resulting in a total of 1109 polymorphic bands among all species including the outgroup. The genetic distances between species varied between 0.034 and 0.330. Based on genetic distances a phenogram using the Neighbor-joining cluster method with bootstrap analysis was calculated. The results support the previously suggested division of the genus into six sections and thereby approve AFLP data to be applicable for phenetic analyses. Moreover, this genetic information is significant for the development of future Helleborus breeding strategies.

Organisation(s)

Section Molecular Plant Breeding
Woody Plant and Propagation Physiology Section

External Organisation(s)

Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture

Type

Article

Journal

Scientia horticulturae

Volume

128

Pages

38-47

No. of pages

10

ISSN

0304-4238

Publication date

25.02.2011

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Horticulture

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2010.12.011 (Access: Unknown)