Genetic relatedness and cultivar identification in a valuable garden species, Hesperantha coccinea (Schizostylis coccinea)

DNA fingerprinting using microsatellites is a useful aid in cultivar identification, but has rarely been applied to garden plants. Eleven microsatellite markers were developed for the valuable garden plant Hesperantha coccinea (Schizostylis coccinea), and used to determine relatedness of accessions. Several accessions, described as separate cultivars, appeared to have identical genotypes. Among the 53 accessions tested, there were 34 unique multilocus genotypes. The level of polymorphism detected in the cultivars was high, with on average seven alleles per locus and an average expected heterozygosity of 0.72 across loci. It is clear from the genotypes that a large proportion of the cultivars are closely related to each other. The resulting markers can now be used to generate a complete database of all known cultivars of the species and to detect essentially derived cultivars. As an extension of this study, the markers identified here could also inform us about the genetic diversity in wild populations.