Identification of essentially derived soybean cultivars using microsatellite markers

Abstract

Cultivars within a species are traditionally distinguished by morphological traits. In some species such as soybean however, varieties are generally obtained from very similar elite parent groups, which makes the morphological differentiation rather difficult. The aim of this study was to differentiate two soybean varieties by means of microsatellite markers. One variety was susceptible and the other resistant to soybean stem canker, the latter essentially derived from the former, in five backcross generations, The DNA used in the analysis was obtained from morphologically indistinguishable seed of the two varieties studied. Forty-two microsatellite loci distributed across the integrated genetic map of soybean were analyzed, of which one locus, Satt115, differentiated the two varieties, indicating that even essentially derived varieties can be discriminated by molecular markers.