SRAP markers for genetic diversity assessment of lavender (Lavandula angustifolia mill.) varieties and breeding lines

Abstract

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) is an essential oil-bearing and medicinal plant of great economic and social importance to Bulgaria, which is the world largest producer of lavender oil nowadays. Currently, the industrial cultivation of lavender in Bulgaria employs up to seven varieties established during the last century. Despite the growing industrial lavender cultivation, few molecular markers have been applied for characterization of lavender genetic resources and breeding. The present study employed sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers to characterize the genetic resources and genetic diversity within and between two groups of ten Bulgarian and five foreign lavender varieties and breeding lines. The data generated following analysis with 51 SRAP primer pairs showed amplification of a high number (4697) and ratio (77.2%) of polymorphic SRAP fragments resulting in relatively high value of the polymorphism information content, with an average of 0.27 ± 0.03 for the used primer pairs. Analysis of molecular variance of the SRAP data further revealed high level of genetic diversity (96.6% of the total variations) within the analyzed groups of Bulgarian and foreign varieties and rather low diversity (3.4% of total variations) between the two groups. The possibilities for further applications of SRAP markers in lavender breeding and cultivation are discussed.

Keywords

• srap markers
• lavender
• lavandula angustifolia
• varieties
• genetic diversity
• genetic resources