V. Hongtrakul, C. Khensri, B. Sangsri, R. Tuntipaiboontana and P. Poothunyawiwat
Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
Waterlily, known as “Queen of Aquatic Plants”, is in the Nymphaeaceae family and is well distributed all over the world in the tropics, semi-tropics and temperate areas. Its beauty arises not only from its forms but also from the colors and combination of colors. Every year, new varieties have been introduced from hybridizers all over the world. Some of the new varieties come from intersubgeneric and interspecific hybridizations. The International Waterlily and Water Gardening Society (IWGS) is a non-profit organization in USA that supports and promotes education and research in all aspects of water gardens and their associated plants. The IWGS conducts an annual competition where hybridizers display their new spectacular waterlilies. Thailand’s waterlilies have won many titles from the competition, for example, Nymphaea ‘Mayaranee’ from N. gigantea (blue) x N. ‘A-trans’ won 2013 IWGS 1st place Anecphya waterlily and N. ‘Siam Purple 1’ from N. ‘Supranee Pink’ x N. ‘Nangkwag Fah’ won 2011 IWGS best new waterlily and 1st place intersubgeneric waterlily. Genetic information of waterlily is very limited. No information on the hybrid confirmation at molecular level has been reported. The objectives of this study were to do the hybridity test and generate DNA barcodes for specific identification of Thailand’s native and notable waterlilies. The DNA markers used for hybrid detection included the developed microsatellite markers, SSCP (Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism) gene specific markers developed to span intron of specific genes and parental specific markers developed specific to parental DNA sequence individually. DNA barcodes were generated by PCR amplification and sequencing at the DNA regions of rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA intergenic spacer (plastid-encoded) and ITS of rDNA (nuclear-encoded). Retrotransposons were identified using RT (Reverse transcriptase) specific primers in order to understand waterlily genome. The information obtained will be useful for waterlily improvement project in the future.
Keywords: Waterlily, Nymphaea, Hybrid detection, DNA markers, DNA barcodes, Retrotransposons.