Retrotransposon Marker Systems as a Tool to Analyze Molecular Diversity of Mediterranean Pistacia Species

Abstract

Retrotransposon movements could lead to major genome rearrangements because of their special transposition mechanism and may be used to analyze differences between species as a marker system. In this context inter primer binding site (iPBS), inter-retrotransposon amplified polymorphism (IRAP) and retrotransposon-microsatellite amplified polymorphism (REMAP) marker systems were used to resolve genetic differences in 7 Mediterranean Pistacia species (P. vera L. cv. Siirt, P. khinjuk Stocks, P. mutica Fischer, P. atlantica Desf., P. palaestina Boiss., P. terebinthus L. and P. lentiscus L.). High level of polymorphism ratio observed in all tested marker systems. Except REMAP, iPBS and IRAP marker systems showed strong mantel correlations. Phylogenetic tree with neighbor joining (NJ) method depicted that Mediterranean Pistacia species may be divided into three clades: (i) P. vera - P. khinjuk, (ii) P. mutica - P. atlantica and (iii) P. palaestina - P. terebinthus with P. lentiscus. Principal component analysis (PCA) plots showed 4 distinct clusters. In conclusion, retrotransposon based marker systems could be useful for analyzing molecular diversity in Pistacia genus due to their highly polymorphic nature and ease of use. (C) 2016 Friends Science Publishers