Genetic Diversity and Identification of Vaccinium Species Through Microsatellite Analysis

The Vaccinium genus contains about 500 species distributed worldwide but only a limited number of species have been studied for genetic diversity using molecular markers. In this study, a genetic analysis was conducted on three Vaccinium species (four cultivars of V. corymbosum, four wild populations of V. myrtillus, and two cultivars of V. ashei), for a total of 95 genotypes, using eight microsatellite (SSR) loci. A total of 57 alleles were detected. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 14, with an average of 7.25. Six unique alleles in V. corymbosum, four in V. ashei, and three in V. myrtillus were identified as being potential species markers. The dendrogram and principal coordinate analysis revealed a clear division of the three species into distinct groups, with each group further divided into sub-clusters based on the type of cultivars and population origin. The set of SSR primers used in this study demonstrated cross-species transferability, allowing their utilization in V. ashei and V. myrtillus, and can be used as a reliable tool for cultivar/population and species identification in blueberries.