Genetic Characterization and Dollar Spot Fungus Susceptibility in Accessions of Festuca rubra from Northern Spain

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to characterize the diversity of 15 Festuca rubra accessions collected from northern Spain on the basis of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and flow cytometry variation. Additionally, all accessions along with the cultivar Wilma (Festuca nigrescens ssp. nigrescens) were evaluated for susceptibility to one isolate of dollar spot fungus (Sclerotinia homoeocarpa F.T. Bennett) collected in Asturias. Five AFLP primer combinations of EcoRI and MseI produced 980 bands; 82.3% were polymorphic and used for analysis. The best combination of primers was EcoRI-AGC+MseI-CAG, because these displayed the highest degree of polymorphism. Jaccard's similarity coefficients between accessions varied from 0.30 to 0.63 and revealed low genetic similarity. Both the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram and principal coordinate analysis distinguished two groups of accessions. Genetic variability in these accessions was not related to the geographic origin or to the agronomic data. Three accessions exhibited moderate resistance to dollar spot disease and may be valuable parent material for introducing this resistance in other susceptible cultivars.