Selection of co-dominant markers for estimation of genetic diversity of Juniperus communis

Abstract

Codominant markers took a priority for low cost and accuracy evaluation of genetic diversity. There are two different categories of codominant genetic markers, one originating from coding sequences (allozymes) and the other from sequences of the nuclear genome that, as is common for microsatellites. Big sensitivity to environment of allozymes caused generation of the new genome sequence-related evaluations of populations. The development of electrophoretic techniques provided more exact methods for estimation of genetic diversity. High levels of polymorphism and codominance found in microsatellites (simple sequence repeats, SSR) presently outstand these markers as more informative and the most valuable ones. Microsatellites are more suitable, compared to the other for population analyzes within last decades often used methods such as Randomply Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR), Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP). Following co-dominant nuclear microsatellites were developed and characterized for the genera of Juniperus: Jc031, Jc037, Jc166, for Juniperus excelsa, Jc031, Jc032, Jc035, Jc166, for Juniperus brevifolia, even thirteen SSR - Jce01- Jc13, Juniperus cedrus. For Juniperus communis microsatellites Jc 016 Jc 031 Jc 032 Jc 035 Jc 037 were created. They were all applicable for comparisons of populations of Lithuanian J. communis.