SIMPLE SEQUENCE REPEAT SSR MARKERS USED IN RUBUS SPECIES FROM ROMANIAN FLORA AND NORTH-EUROPEAN AND NORTH-AMERICAN RUBUS CULTIVARS ( RUBUS IDAEUS )

SSR analysis was performed on 6 species of Rubus from Romanian flora and 20 N- American and N-European cultivars, in order to asse ss the molecular taxonomic relation between Romanian Rubus species and N-American and N-European Rubus cultivars, to estimate the genetically potential of this material and to identify material for crossing program. Six Rubus Romanian species were identified by botanists based on their morphologica l characteristics: Rubus caesius, Rubus plicatus, Rubus idaeus, Rubus discolor, Rubus plicatus subsp. opacu s and Rubus hirtus . The N-European and N-American Rubus cultivars were provide by SCRI. We used twenty SSR primers pairs fluorescently labeled on the left primer with ABI fluorescent dyes HEX, FAM or TET. The PCR products were prepared according to Macaulay et al.(2001) for analysis on the ABI Prism 377. The reproducibility of the results confirm th at SSR markers are very efficient to: 1. to characteri ze the Rubus species from Romanian spontaneous flora; 2. to characterize the N-American and N-European Rubus cultivars; 3. to compare the Romanian Rubus species with N-American and N-European Rubus cultivars; 4. to accomplish dendrograms based on a ll results; 5. to develop a crossing program based on all the analysis processed.