Genome variability of Russian potato cultivars: AFLP-analysis data

Plant breeding success largely depends on knowledge of the genetic diversity and pedigree of cultivars, which is important for determining parental pairs for crossbreeding, donor genotypes of valuable traits and intraspecific homogeneity. AFLP is one of the popular methods for detecting genomic polymorphism and genotyping plant accessions, cultivars and lines. In addition to solving taxonomic and phylogenetic problems, the AFLP method is widely used to determine the variability, homogeneity, and the introgression and hybridity degree of S. tuberosum cultivars, reconstruct their pedigrees, and also to search for markers linked to various traits. Despite the importance of cultivar certification and inter-cultivar genomic variability assessment, in the Russian Federation, there are few studies on molecular marking of the potato domestic and foreign cultivars farmed in Russia. In the present work, the nuclear genome variability of 60 potato cultivars and five perspective clones was evaluated using the multilocus AFLP analysis. With primer combinations E35/M40 and E41/M35, 218 AFLP fragments were detected, 189 (86.7 %) of which were polymorphic and 19 were unique for individual cultivars. Each of the 65 analyzed accessions was characterized by a specific AFLP spectrum. The genetic distances between the analyzed accessions varied widely from 0.37 to 0.77 with an average value of GD = 0.61. The species Solanum stoloniferum , used as an outgroup genotype, was most similar to the cv. Fioletovyi (GD = 0.59), and the greatest difference was to the cv. Aurora (GD = 0.80). Statistical analysis of the obtained AFLP data resulted in statistically insignificant clustering. On dendrograms constructed using the PAST and Structure v. 2.3.4 software, there was a tendency toward clustering (with low bootstrap support) of cultivars from the Lorch Potato Research Institute, and accessions with resistance to late blight, cyst nematode or PVY, as well as with yellow-coloured tuber peel. The high polymorphism level of the analyzed cultivars, the lack of their clear clustering and their “unstable” position at the dendrograms may be due to the current intensive exchange of breeding material, as well as to the increasing popularity of using wild potatoes in the potato breeding programs.