Identification of Interspecific Hybrids between Populus deltoides and P.simonii by Using Species-Specific InDel Marker

[Objective] The identification of interspecific poplar hybrids at seedling stage is challenging because of the morphological similarity.Here,we developed species-specific InDel markers to identify the interspecific hybrids between Populus deltoides and P.simonii,in order to lay a foundation for the identification of hybrids and molecular markerassisted breeding in poplar.[Method] Ten individuals of each P.deltoides and P.simonii were resequenced to screen species-specific InDels,which were further applied for primer designing.The resulted primers were tested for their versatility and specificity using 8% non-denature polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.The selected species-specific polymorphic primers were used to identify interspecific hybrid progeny between P.deltoides and P.simouii.[Result]Resequencing reads from each ten individuals of P.deltoides and P.simonii were mapped onto the genome of P.deltoides for comparisons,and a total of 359 733 InDel sites with a length difference larger than 5 bp were obtain