Identification of simple sequence repeat markers that differentiate bermudagrass cultivars derived from 'tifgreen'

Abstract

The release of the bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) triploid hybrid 'Tifgreen' revolutionized southeastern U.S. golf course greens. Off-types within this cultivar began to be identified soon after the initial plantings, and through the last 50 years, many of the best performing off-types have been released as new cultivars. Examination of some of the most popular somatic mutants with a new set of 47 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and 23 previously discovered genomic SSR markers identified five polymorphic fragments (as compared with 'Tifgreen') among three cultivars, TifEagle, MiniVerde, and Tifdwarf. Each polymorphism appears to be a slight increase/ decrease in microsatellite repeat number and the polymorphic fragments are unique for each cultivar. Two polymorphic fragments were identified that were unique to 'Tifdwarf', one polymorphic fragment was unique to 'TifEagle', and two polymorphic fragments were unique to 'MiniVerde'. Furthermore, three of the five polymorphic markers display an additional allele only in the shoot tissue but not in the root tissue of 'TifEagle' and 'Tifdwarf'. This finding suggests that 'TifEagle' and 'Tifdwarf' are somatic chimeras. This set of SSR markers identifies repeatable polymorphic fragments among multiple 'Tifgreen'-derived cultivars and gives insight into the nature of the mutations that exist within 'Tifgreen'.