S02 - Session P6 - Alien genomic components and rearrangements: a challenge for genetic resources management

Authors: Claudia Wiedow *, Jayanthi Nadarajan

Nowadays molecular techniques are frequently applied and are commonplace in plant breeding, IP protection and cultivar verification, but are also critical in genetic resources management and conservation. At the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, genetic markers were applied to a range of species (such as kiwifruit, potato, apple, pear and gentians), predominantly in cultivar development. Genetic markers are also routinely used to verify that genotypes are true to type or derived from particular parents n and contribute to allele diversity/profiling and core set development. This molecular quality control (QC) step is crucial before long-term conservation to ensure that true identity and allelic diversity of important genetic resources are captured. Within this QC process we observed offspring of hybrid crosses that differed from the expected parental genetic make-up (genomes), indicating 'alien' components or genomic rearrangements. These can be manifested as, for example, transpositions, genome size changes, chromosomal rearrangements, insertions, deletions and other effects n coined in the literature as a 'genomic shock'. This study presents some initial insights and evidence from recently detected alien genomic components and rearrangements in kiwifruit, blueberries and apple x pear hybrids. We discuss how we can raise awareness of this issue, what future research might be undertaken in relation to characterizing progeny of wide crosses and the implications we see for plant genetic resource conservation.