Possibilities of breeding teak (Tectona grandisL.f.) in Costa Rica assisted by AFLP markers

Abstract

Teak tree (Tectona grandis L.f.) is a tropical tree specie naturally distributed in Southeast Asia, where it is also widely planted. It is planted as exotic specie in Africa, South and Central America. Tree improvement activities have been initiated in several countries including Costa Rica, which it has become the largest teak developer in Latin America. Teak sprouts were collected in a 4-yearold progeny test from the best two and the worst two families for volume as well as for stem quality traits. A DNA extraction protocol described before was modified in order to yield high quality DNA.
AFLP reactions were performed as described previously. Seven selective primer combinations (EACG + M-CCG, E-ACT +M-CCG, E-AGC + M-CCG, E-ACG + M-CTC, E-ACT + M-CTC, E-AGC + M-CTC, E-AGG + M-CCA) resulted in 330 scoreable markers. A large number of markers were obtained when families where analyzed separately from its performance. Genetic distances based on AFLP markers frequencies were used to construct a dendrogram among families. The best quality performer families grouped widely separated from the worst performers, sharing 61.63% of their genetic elements. In volume, worst performer families grouped sharing 45.85% of their genetic elements.