Discriminating capacity of NBS and Myb gene profiling for genetic analyses of Campanula spp

Two new DNA-based marker methodologies, the nucleotide binding site (NBS) and myb gene profiling, were evaluated to assess their discriminating capacity and efficiency in genetic analyses of 11 Campanula populations (C. latifolia, C. rapunculoides, C. spicata and C. trachelium). Three restriction enzymes (MseI, RsaI and HaeIII) with two NBS primers (GLPL6 and NBS2) and one myb primer (MYB2) were used. Looking at the number of banding pattern, both techniques discriminated the genotypes very effectively. On an individual assay basis, NBS profiling completely distinguished all the genotypes of one population of C. latifolia and C. trachelium. To test the usefulness of the overall information provided by these markers for establishing genetic variability and distances, AMOVA and two Principal Coordinate Analyses were performed. Both NBS and myb gene profiling resulted to be remarkably effective for group discrimination and genetic diversity studies. However, some differences could be highlighted. The myb marker resulted to be more efficient to differentiating species than populations, while NBS profiling appeared to better discriminate the populations. In general, the plots reflected the geographical distributions. The use of these techniques is discussed in terms of the appropriate choice for studying different aspects of Campanula species and populations evaluation.