Microsatellite markers for genetic analyses in southeastern Vaccinium species

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) in Corvallis, Oregon, USA, preserves genetic resources of many temperate fruit crops, including blueberry. This genebank contains more than 1,750 Vaccinium accessions from 39 countries, with cultivars and selections stored as living plants, and wild relatives stored as seed. Wild species representatives from northwestern, central and southern Florida, and neighboring US states collected during multiple USDA expeditions, are preserved at the NCGR. The objective of this study was to identify single locus microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers that are useful for genetic diversity assessment in four important Vaccinium species from the southeastern US including V. elliottii, V. darrowii, V. fuscatum and V. myrsinites. Twenty-three SSRs were screened on a test panel of eight samples consisting of four V. darrowii accessions, two V. elliottii representatives, and one accession each from V. fuscatum and V. myrsinites. Of 23 V. corymbosum SSRs evaluated, four amplified more than two alleles in representatives of one or all three diploid species or/and more than four in the tetraploid V. myrsinites accession indicating multiple loci. Three SSRs amplified poorly in one or two species. One SSR was monomorphic. Fifteen SSRs amplified single loci and were polymorphic in V. darrowii. The SSRs will be used for population structure and diversity assessment of these species.