Development and Across-Species Tranferability of Microsatellite Markers in Lantana

Lantana L. is a genus of shrubby species common in the New World tropics and subtropics.  Intra- and Inter-specific hybridization and polyploidization have made it difficult to differentiate varieties, subspecies, and natural versus naturalized populations.  This study aimed to develop microsatellite markers to facilitate the analysis of genetic relatedness among cultivated Lantana varieties and species. SSR-enriched partial genomic library was constructed using genomic DNA of L. camara cultivar Lola. Out of the 384 genomic clones sequenced, 225 clones (58.6%) contained SSR sequences with five or more repeats. Three clones were found to be redundant and 30 clones had the SSR motifs close to the ends of sequencing reads, thus not providing enough sequences for primer designing.  Nucleotide primers were designed for 109 unique SSR-containing sequences and 91 of these primer pairs amplified PCR products from 'Lola' genomic DNA, indicating a success rate of 83.5%. To assess the transferability of these SSR markers in Lantana, 49 pairs of primers were tested on one L. canescens, three L. depressa, two L. involucrata, and four L. montevidensis accessions.  The transferability rate was the highest in L. depressa (59.2%), but it rapidly declined to 30.6% in L. montevidensis, 22.4% in L. involucrata, and 10.2% in L. canescens. The higher transferability of SSR markers to L. depressa indicates a lesser nucleotide divergence and a closer genetic relationship between L. camara and L. depressa than between L. camara and the other three species tested.