Sex And Strains Identification Of Ficus Awkeotsang Makino Using Molecular Markers

Ficus awkeotsang Makino is a species of Moraceae in Ficus, and it is a dioecism and a unique woody vine growing in China. Its achenes can be utilized to produce jelly curd, which is an excellent food in the market. So, its artificial cultivation has broad market prospects. But it is hard to discriminate Ficus awkeotsang Makino's sex and strain from its morphologic characteristics when they are not in blossom. A simple, rapid and accurate method of identification should be developed and applied in practical production. Sex and strains identification and the genetic diversity of Ficus awkeotsang Makino were studied in this work using SRAP(Sequence-related amplified polymorphism) molecular marker. The result could provide a theoretical basis for the cultivation and the improvement of germplasm resources in Ficus awkeotsang Makino.The genomic DNA of Ficus awkeotsang Makino with high concentration and purity could be obtained with an improved CTAB method, which was suitable for molecular analysis. 128 SRAP primer combinations were used for SRAP amplification and about 1228 fragments were obtained from male and female DNA pool. A marker of about 230bp linked to female was generated by Me5Em14 and was named Me5Em14-230. This marker could be used to identify different sex of Ficus awkeotsang Makino at the seedling stage. SRAP marker was imployed to identify different strains of Ficus awkeotsang Makino in this study, the result showed that a primer combination MelEm8 could identify the 16 male strains, and two primer combinations Me6Em6 and Me3Em2 could identify the 24 female strains. On the basis of the result, specific fingerprint of each strains was produced. More over, the result of Nei's genetic distance and UPGMA cluster analysis indicated that the relationship between strains was very complicated, and the diversity of cultivated Ficus awkeotsang Makino was high.