Molecular Markers Analysis of the Genetic Variability inside the Species Crocus sativus L.

The real level of genetic variability inside the species Crocus sativus L. is still debated and in literature it is possible to recover contradictory papers providing contrasting results. If the species is monomorphic or polymorphic is under debate. In order to obtain new insights about the relations between phenotypic and genetic variations between different accessions inside the species C. sativus L. we carried out a molecular marker analysis by using the AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) and the MS-AFLP (Methyl Sensitive AFLP, susceptible to the different methylation state of cytosines) methodologies. The use of these two methodologies gives us the possibility to detect the presence of variability both at the genomic and epigenomic level. In a previous communication we have reported about the application of such methodologies on a core collection made of samples belonging both to accessions with different origins inside the species C. sativus and to different species of the Crocus genus. Variable levels of variation among the samples have been detected by the two methodologies. Here we present a further advance by applying the two molecular methodologies abovementioned to a huge number of samples collected from the CrocusBank Germplasm located in Cuenca (Spain) funded by the European Commission AGRI GEN RES 018 Action. The Crocus Bank is a big collection of several accessions of saffron from different countries and regions, in order to characterise and exploit the genetic variability of C. sativus (www.crocusbank.org). 73 different saffron accessions originated from different Spanish cultivation areas have been considered to obtain a deeper evaluation of the genetic variability. Moreover in order to see if a certain level of genetic variability is also present inside the same accession, a number of samples ranging between 4 and 5 have been considered for all the collected samples. 10 selective primer combinations have been considered for both the two analyses and the preliminary results are reported