Genetic analysis of (-)-a-bisabolol and chamazulene content in tetraploid camomile (Chamomille recutita (L.) Rausch.) and identification of molecular markers

In order to facilitate efficient selection for a high (-)-a-bisabolol and chamazulene content in camomile studies on the development of molecular markers (RAPDs, AFLPs) were carried out. Based on phenotypic data giving hint to a monogenic recessive mode of inheritance of the bisaboloids and chamazulene in tetraploid camomile, bulked segregant analysis (BSA) was performed on a segregating Fi-progeny (841 individuals) of a cross between camomile genotypes with a high (69.1%) and a low (2.3%) (-)-cx-bisabolol content, respectively, using RAPDs and AFLPs. A screening was performed using 200 RAPD primers and 512 EcoRI+3/Mse1+3 AFLP-primer combinations for the (-)-a-bisabolol content and 200 RAPD primers and 192 EcoRl+3/Msel+3 AFLP-primer combinations for chamazulene, respectively. Starting from detected polymorphisms potential markers were tested on individual plants of the bulks and later mapped on a sub-population of 92 Frindividuals. Up to now, two AFLP-markers linked to the (-)-cx-bisabolol locus within a distance of 11.9 and 15.2 cM were developed. Regarding the chamazulene content several markers were detected in a distance of 2.0 to 24.5 cM. Based on this procedure, future work aims at the development of more closely linked markers in order to facilitate efficient marker assisted selection procedures for these traits that can only be determined after flowering.