Genetic structure and variability parameters of Lathyrus sativus L. European collection

Abstract

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is a self-pollinating legume that is well adapted to changing climatic conditions. In our study, the collection of 25 accessions from different parts of Europe (7 from BiH, 2 from Romania, 4 from Portugal, 8 from Serbia, 2 from Bulgaria, 1 from Greece and 1 from Slovenia) was genetically assessed by 15 species-specific nSSR markers (Simple Sequence Repeat). Extraction of gDNA was performed from 3 to 10 individual young plants/genotypes of each accession using an automated magnetic procedure. PCR reaction mixtures and amplification were optimized for each primer pair under two-step touch-down PCR conditions. Fragment analysis was performed on a genetic analyzer (ABI 3130XL) together with the internal standard ROX500. Accurate allele lengths were recorded from the electropherograms in GeneMapper6.0 software. The diversity parameters and genetic structure of the Lathyrus collection was observed using various population genetic programmes such as Arleqin, MSToolkit, GenAlEx, Populations, TreeView, and Structure.