Genome size, ploidy levels, and development of novel SSR primer to evaluate genetic diversity of Corylopsis Siebold & Zucc. germplasm collections

Abstract Corylopsis Seibold & Zucc. is a genus of flowering shrubs with few cultivars and little information on genome size, ploidy levels, genetic relationships among taxa. The United States National Arboretum collaborating gardens in North America maintain diverse germplasm collection including cultivated wild-collected objectives this study were to determine ploidy, diversity . Flow cytometry revealed series diploid, tetraploid, pentaploid, hexaploid taxa 2C sizes ranging from 1.9 pg 5.7 pg. Representative selected for root tip cytology, revealing diploid (C. platypetala Rehder E.H. Wilson), tetraploid gotoana Makino), pentaploid (unnamed hybrid selection), willmottiae Wilson) Seventeen genomic simple sequence repeat markers developed used the These had an average 7.4 alleles per locus range three 17 alleles. A dendrogram was generated by unweighted pair group method arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis using Jaccard similarity coefficient visualize within Information gained will further breeding efforts aid management collections