Microsatellite genotyping of carnation varieties

A set of 11 sequence-tagged microsatellite markers for carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) was developed using a DNA library enriched for microsatellites. Supplemented with three markers derived from sequence database entries, these were used to genotype carnation varieties using a semi-automated fluorescence-based approach. In a set of 82 cultivars, the markers amplified 4-16 alleles each. The effective number of alleles varied from 1.9 to 6.0. For the eight best scorable markers, heterozygosity was between 0.51 and 0.99. The markers were able to distinguish all cultivars with a unique combination of alleles, except for sport mutants, which were readily grouped together with the original cultivar. In addition, one group of three and one group of six cultivars each had the same combination of 'allelic peaks'. The cluster of three varieties concerned original cultivars and their mutants. The cluster of six consisted of four mutants from the same cultivar and two other varietie