Botanical characterization of new sugarcane varieties obtained from the EEAOC breeding program through molecular and phenotypical markers

PERERA, M. F.; AYBAR GUCHEA, M; COSTILLA, D; FIGUEROA, F; OVEJERO, N; NOGUERA, AS

San Miguel de Tucumán

Congreso; ISSCT XXX Congress; 2019

ISSCT

An accurate varietal identification is essential to protect intellectual property rights of new sugarcane cultivars. For this purpose, diverse data sets such as molecular and phenotypical markers are useful, complementing each other and should be employed together. However, gene targeted markers such as Target Region Amplified Polymorphism (TRAP) could better reflect functional polymorphism. For morphological characterization, descriptors proposed by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) are valuable tools since they are stable under environmental conditions. Our aim was to characterize three sugarcane cultivars recently released by the EEAOC breeding program, comparing them with the most widely planted ones by using TRAP and SSR markers and UPOV?s characters. Total DNA of sugarcane cultivars was characterized by five combinations of TRAP primers and five SSR primer pairs. Amplification products were separated by electrophoresis. Plants from each genotype were phenotypically evaluated with the nine compulsory UPOV?s descriptors. Bands and morphological data were transformed into 0/1 matrix. Similarity was calculated and dendrograms were generated using UPGMA analysis. Both molecular markers clearly revealed phylogenetic relationship among genotypes. The entire characterization allowed us to unambiguously differentiate the recently released cultivars to register and protect plant breeder?s rights.