PRIMER NOTE
Development of novel microsatellite markers for Alkanna
tinctoria by comparative transcriptomics
Muhammad Ahmad1,2, Desanka Lazic1, Karin Hansel-Hohl1, Christian Lexer
Manuscript received 22 July 2019; revision accepted 9 September
2019.
1
Center for Health and Bioresources, AIT Austrian Institute of
Technology GmbH, 3430, Tulln, Austria
2
Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, Faculty of Life
Sciences, University of Vienna, 1030, Vienna, Austria
3
Author for correspondence: eva-maria.sehr@ait.ac.at
Citation: Ahmad, M., D. Lazic, K. Hansel-Hohl, C. Lexer, and E.
M. Sehr. 2019. Development of novel microsatellite markers for
Alkanna tinctoria by comparative transcriptomics. Applications in
Plant Sciences 7(10): e11296.
doi:10.1002/aps3.11296
2
, and Eva Maria Sehr1,3
PREMISE: Alkanna tinctoria (Boraginaceae) is an important medicinal herb with its main
distribution across the Mediterranean region. To reveal its genetic variation and population
structure, microsatellite markers were developed and validated in four Greek populations.
METHODS AND RESULTS: RNA-Seq data of the related species Arnebia euchroma and Echium
plantagineum were assembled and mined to identify conserved ortholog sets containing
simple sequence repeat motifs. Fifty potential loci were identified and then tested on A. tinctoria, of which 17 loci were polymorphic. The number of alleles ranged from one to nine, and
the levels of observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.000 to 1.000 and 0.000 to
0.820, respectively. Most of these loci could be successfully amplified in eight other species
of Boraginaceae (Alkanna graeca, A. hellenica, A. sfikasiana, Echium vulgare, E. plantagineum,
Lithospermum officinale, Borago officinalis, and Anchusa officinalis).
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first set of microsatellite loci for studying the genetic
variation and population structure of A. tinctoria and shows their potential usefulness in other
Boraginaceae species.
KEY WORDS Alkanna tinctoria; Boraginaceae; conserved ortholog set; microsatellites; population structure.
Alkanna tinctoria Tausch (Boraginaceae) is a perennial herbaceous
plant that is found across southern Europe, northern Africa,
and southwestern Asia, with a central distribution across the
Mediterranean region (Valdés, 2011). In Greece, its occurrence
has been reported from all floristic regions including the islands
(Dimopoulos et al., 2013). The use of A. tinctoria red root extracts
as a coloring agent and in traditional medicine to treat wounds
can be traced back to the period of Hippocrates and Theophrastus
(Papageorgiou et al., 1999). Recently, several studies have confirmed
the wound-healing, antimicrobial, anticancer, and antioxidant properties of root extracts from A. tinctoria, which are attributed to alkannin or shikonin produced in roots (Deng et al., 2018; Yan et al.,
2019; Zhang et al., 2019). Because of these properties, these active ingredients have received increasing attention from the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries in recent years (Malik et al., 2016).
However, most of the research on A. tinctoria until now has focused
either on its chemical composition or on deciphering the function of
active ingredients. The extent of genetic variation and the population
structure of A. tinctoria in Greece or elsewhere have never been studied, which may restrict the management and planned utilization of
this valuable resource. This is also evident from the National Center
for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases where, except for
barcoding sequences, no other information could be found.
Because limited sequence information is available for this
species, we employed a comparative transcriptomics approach
using RNA-Seq data sets of the closely related species Echium plantagineum L. and Arnebia euchroma (Royle) I. M. Johnst., both in the
Boraginaceae, to identify a conserved ortholog set (COS) containing simple sequence repeat (SSR) motifs, a method that has previously been used to develop markers for different species in Fabaceae
(Chapman, 2015). By employing this strategy, we have successfully
developed a first set of SSR markers for A. tinctoria, which will facilitate future genetic diversity and gene flow studies. Additionally,
we tested the cross-species transferability of these markers in eight
other species of Boraginaceae.
METHODS AND RESULTS
Raw RNA-Seq reads of E. plantagineum (SRR4034890) and A. euchroma
(SRR4034892) obtained from the NCBI Sequence Read Archive
(SRA) were uploaded to Galaxy public server (https://usegalaxy.eu).
Applications in Plant Sciences 2019 7(10): e11296; http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/AppsPlantSci © 2019 Ahmad et al. Applications in Plant Sciences
is published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the Botanical Society of America. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is
not used for commercial purposes.
1 of 5
Applications in Plant Sciences 2019 7(10): e11296
Ahmad et al.—Alkanna tinctoria microsatellites
After filtering of reads for low-quality (Q < 30), poly-N, and adapter
sequences using Trimmomatic Galaxy version 0.36.0 (Bolger et al.,
2014), species-specific de novo assemblies were generated using
Trinity Galaxy version 2.2.0 (Grabherr et al., 2011). The assembled
contigs were then clustered (90% identity threshold) to generate
91,002 and 106,240 unigenes in E. plantagineum and A. euchroma,
respectively, using CD-HIT-EST software Galaxy version 1.3 (Li
and Godzik, 2006). Mining for SSR regions (≥6 di-, ≥5 tri-, ≥5 tetra-,
and ≥5 pentanucleotide repeats) in each of the transcriptomes by
MISA (Beier et al., 2017) resulted in 4999 (E. plantagineum) and
4821 (A. euchroma) SSR-harboring transcripts. Thirty-two to forty-five percent of SSR motifs were located in the first or last 50 bp
of the transcripts and were discarded because they were not suitable
for primer design. To identify the COS containing SSRs, transcripts
predicted to contain SSR motifs were BLASTed against each other
by running the BLAST Reciprocal Best Hits (RBH) Galaxy version
0.1.11 (Cock et al., 2015). A successful BLAST-RBH was considered as a potential COS-SSR locus. By using this strategy, 89 loci
were identified. After pairwise alignments, we discarded 49 loci,
either because there was no variation between aligned sequences
or regions flanking SSR motifs were not suitable for primer design.
Primers were designed from the remaining 50 COS-SSRs.
•
2 of 5
Fresh leaves of A. tinctoria (n = 67) were collected from four
different locations in Greece (Appendix 1). Genomic DNA was
isolated using an in-house optimized protocol based on a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method described in
van der Beek et al. (1992). Briefly, 50 mg of powdered leaf tissues
were homogenized in 400 μL of grinding buffer (0.35 M sorbitol, 0.1 M Tris-HCl, 5 mM EDTA, 20 mM NaHSO3, and 4% PVP
40; pH 8.9) followed by addition of 400 μL of lysis buffer (0.2 M
Tris-HCL, 50 mM EDTA, 2 M NaCl, 2% CTAB; pH 8.6), 100 μL
of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS; 10%), and 4 μL of Proteinase
K. The mixture was incubated at 60°C for 1 h and centrifuged
at 15,000 rpm and 4°C for 10 min. The supernatant was transferred to new 2-mL Eppendorf tubes containing 450 μL of buffer
III (3 M CH3COOK and 5 M CH3COOH) and incubated on ice
for 10 min, followed by centrifugation as described previously.
The supernatant was precipitated with 560 μL of isopropanol by
centrifugation at 15,000 rpm and 4°C for 25 min. The DNA pellet
was washed with chilled 70% ethanol and was dissolved in 100
μL of double-autoclaved water containing 5 μL of RNase (10 mg/
mL). For initial amplification, primers were tested on two individuals of A. tinctoria. For 30 primer pairs that showed bands
of expected size, 16 individuals from four populations were then
TABLE 1. Characteristics of 17 polymorphic conserved ortholog set–simple sequence repeat markers developed for Alkanna tinctoria.a
Locus
C2
C3
C5
C9
C12
C13
C14
C16
C20
C24
C29
C30b
C32
C35
C41
C42
C45
Primer sequences (5′–3′)
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
GAAGCCATTTTGGAGAGAAG
CGAGTGTSACCTCTCTGTAC
AGTTGGTCTSTAGCATTTCC
TCTTTGCTGWCCACTCACTC
TCATCATCAGAATATTCATCATCG
CAAATGAAGGGACTAAACATGC
CAATTTCCCAATTCTACCCC
GAGGAACTTYTGGGAATCAGG
TCCAAATAAAGAAATCTACCTACG
TGTAGAACAGACTACTATGAATGG
TTAGGTGGTGGTGGTAGTGG
CTGACCGTGCTCCTGATCC
AACTGAAGAAGAAAACAAAGGTGAC
TTGTTGGAGCATTTGAGTC
TCACCACCCAAAAMACYACC
TCTTCACCATAYGGYCCTCCTG
TCTTCCCTGTTCTTGTTTCC
CTTTCCTCACATGCAGCAC
GCTATTCAAATTCAACATCACTGAAG
CACCAAGAGGCTCTTCTGGTGA
TGGCATACCATGAAGCATTG
GTAATGCTGCCTATGAGAGG
CGATGATCGATTGAAGCGCKTCC
GTCAACCACCCCCAAYTRATCG
CAAACCCATCTTCGTATTTCRCC
CCCACTGAACTCAACWAKGTCC
CATTGCTGAAGATCTCCAATCC
CATTACATGCCGTACTACCACC
GTAATAGCTCTAACTCAAATCAGCAG
ACAAACTTTCCAAGCGTCTTGATAAG
GCCAAGCATTCGTCRGGGAG
CACACTACTCTCCCTACACCC
AGWMTGATGAGCAAACACAATA
GTGGTTTTGGCTTGTTCTTG
Repeat
motif
Allele size
range (bp)
E-value
Ta (°C)
(TCA)6
148–167
None
3e-164
57
(ACC)8
151–181
tRNA ligase-like (Manihot esculenta)
0
57
(ATC)6
197–239
HM-associated protein (Olea europea)
3e-5
55
(CAA)7
166–227
NP complex protein (Solanum tuberosum)
2e-144
58
(CAT)7
204–213
Glucosylceramidase (Coffea arabica)
0
50
(TGG)6
258–269
Glycine-rich cell wall structural protein 1 (Latuca sativa)
0.093
58
(TAG)7
142–161
None
2e-132
57
(CCA)6
137–145
Polyamine transporter (Nicotiana tomentosiformis)
0
58
(TCA)6
108–151
Reticulata-related 4 (Hevea brasiliensis)
3e-165
57
(ATT)8
233–242
B2 protein (Sesamum indicum)
2e-163
58
(ACC)6
149–195
DNA-binding protein (Nicotiana sylvestris)
3e-95
56
(GAG)7
132–148
Hypothetical protein F511 (Dorcoceras hygrometricum)
4e-21
56
(GAG)5
157–178
None
1e-139
53
(CTG)6
124–153
3e-172
56
(AGC)6
127–142
Polyadenylate-binding protein RBP47 (Nicotiana
sylvestris)
None
7e-119
53
(TGG)8
230–260
F-box protein (Nicotiana tabacum)
0
56
(TCA)7
235–238
DNA-binding transcription factor (Durio zibethinus)
2e-80
56
Putative function (Organism)
Note: Ta = annealing temperature.
a
Nucleotide sequences of each locus are provided in Appendix S1.
http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/AppsPlantSci
© 2019 Ahmad et al.
Applications in Plant Sciences 2019 7(10): e11296
Ahmad et al.—Alkanna tinctoria microsatellites
•
3 of 5
TABLE 2. Genetic diversity indices of 17 polymorphic conserved ortholog set–simple sequence repeat markers in four Greek populations of Alkanna tinctoria.a
AT3 (n = 17)
AT4 (n = 18)
AT9 (n = 16)
AT10 (n = 16)
Locus
A
Ho
He
He(ad)
A
Ho
He
He(ad)
A
Ho
He
He(ad)
A
Ho
He
He(ad)
C2b
C3
C5b
C9b
C12
C13b
C14b
C16b
C20
C24
C29b
C30b
C32
C35b
C41b
C42
C45
5
6
5
5
1
4
5
5
5
3
7
3
2
5
5
2
2
0.471
0.588
0.294
0.471
0.000
0.353
0.912
0.824
0.471
0.688
1.000
0.471
0.176
1.000
1.000
0.176
0.059
0.438
0.716
0.704
0.562
0.000
0.229
0.631
0.716
0.517
0.533
0.817
0.399
0.094
0.711
0.719
0.094
0.030
0.390
0.728
0.684
0.539
0.000
0.205
0.595
0.683
0.492
0.528
0.779
0.406
0.092
0.654
0.694
0.092
0.030
7
9
8
9
4
4
6
5
6
4
9
6
3
5
6
3
2
0.778
0.722
0.444
0.111
0.000
0.444
1.000
0.722
0.722
0.556
1.000
0.556
0.111
1.000
1.000
0.111
0.111
0.671
0.819
0.623
0.269
0.000
0.391
0.662
0.647
0.652
0.550
0.821
0.523
0.058
0.731
0.649
0.058
0.058
0.583
0.810
0.618
0.258
0.000
0.410
0.615
0.605
0.648
0.534
0.795
0.462
0.058
0.652
0.606
0.057
0.057
3
2
7
6
4
2
3
3
4
3
6
4
3
2
5
3
1
0.800
0.267
0.667
0.733
0.062
0.062
1.000
0.562
0.667
0.200
0.875
0.688
0.250
1.000
0.875
0.133
0.000
0.626
0.265
0.713
0.815
0.094
0.032
0.548
0.639
0.542
0.108
0.667
0.581
0.138
0.516
0.670
0.305
0.000
0.559
0.260
0.624
0.803
0.122
0.032
0.533
0.610
0.585
0.102
0.621
0.521
0.128
0.516
0.635
0.295
0.000
4
2
8
6
1
2
4
2
6
2
4
3
2
3
4
2
1
0.938
0.188
0.562
0.562
0.000
0.188
0.938
0.375
0.438
0.188
0.938
0.250
0.125
0.938
0.938
0.062
0.000
0.723
0.216
0.809
0.680
0.000
0.192
0.584
0.208
0.742
0.100
0.622
0.529
0.066
0.599
0.632
0.032
0.000
0.662
0.213
0.806
0.681
0.000
0.213
0.553
0.201
0.704
0.098
0.582
0.536
0.065
0.568
0.571
0.032
0.000
Note: A = number of alleles; He = expected heterozygosity; He(ad) = expected heterozygosity after allele dosage correction; Ho = observed heterozygosity.
a
Voucher and locality information are provided in Appendix 1.
b
Loci that showed tetraploid peaks.
selected to assess polymorphism. The PCR reaction was performed incorporating the FAM-labeled M13 primer according to
Schuelke (2000) and consisted of 4 μL of HOT FIREPol Blend
Master Mix (Solis BioDyne, Tartu, Estonia), 0.24 μM of each reverse primer, 0.24 μM of M13-labeled fluorescent dye (FAM or
HEX), 0.08 μM of each forward primer modified with an M13
tail, and 10–20 ng of genomic DNA template, in a final volume
of 20 μL. PCR was performed using PTC-220 DYAD Thermal
Cycler (MJ Research, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA) with the
following parameters: 15 min of enzyme activation at 95°C; followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 95°C for 20 s, annealing at
53–57°C for 45 s, extension for 1 min at 72°C; with a final extension period of 15 min at 72°C. The amplified products were
visualized on 2% agarose gels and, after dilution to an appropriate concentration (3 : 17 to 3 : 57), were separated on a capillary
sequencer (ABI PRISM 3130xl; Applied Biosystems, Foster City,
California, USA) using the GeneScan 350 internal size standard
(Applied Biosystems). Allelic profiles of each individual were determined using GeneMapper version 5 (Applied Biosystems). Of
the 30 loci, 20 loci were found to be polymorphic; however, peaks
from three loci were difficult to interpret and were not included
in further analyses (Table 1). Characteristics of 10 monomorphic
SSR loci are given in Appendix 2. It is noteworthy that the allelic
profiles of some loci indicated that A. tinctoria is a tetraploid species. This observation is consistent with Coppi et al. (2006), who
also observed a 4x ploidy level in A. tinctoria. For further analysis,
we treated the data as tetraploid based on the available literature
evidence (Coppi et al., 2006) and our own observation of >50%
of loci (nine out of 17) with multi-allelic genotypes consistent
with tetraploidy (Table 2). The nucleotide sequences of all loci
assembled from the RNA-Seq data set of A. euchroma are given
in Appendices S1 and S2.
Subsequently, 67 individuals from four populations
(Appendix 1) were characterized by the 17 polymorphic loci. The
DNA isolation method is similar to that described above, except a
lithium chloride–containing buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl, 0.7 M NaCl,
20 mM EDTA, 0.4 M LiCl, and 2% PVP 40) was used instead of
http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/AppsPlantSci
the grinding and lysis buffer. In addition, 20 μL of dithiothreitol
(1 M) was added before incubation at 60°C (Lefort and Douglas,
1999). PCR reaction mixture and cycling conditions were the
same as described above. GenoDive version 2.023 (Meriman and
van Tienderen, 2004) was used to estimate the number of alleles
and the levels of observed (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (He),
with and without allele dosage correction. Allele dosage was inferred using the maximum likelihood method implemented in
GenoDive (Table 2). The number of alleles ranged from one to
nine, with an average of 5.94 alleles per locus. Levels of He and
Ho of individual loci ranged from 0.000 to 0.821 and 0.000 to
1.000 in the studied populations, respectively. We note that indepth cytogenetic work would be needed to clarify the precise cytotype status of each accession and population. Nevertheless, He
represents a useful estimate of gene diversity for any ploidy level,
and we report values with and without allele dosage correction;
therefore, we regard our estimates of diversity and information
content of the markers as robust and conservative (Table 2).
The cross-species transferability of 17 markers was tested on
three Alkanna Tausch species: A. graeca Boiss. & Spruner, A. hellenica Rech. f., and A. sfikasiana Tan, Vold & Strid (Appendix 1). In addition, we also tested cross-species amplification in Echium vulgare
L., E. plantagineum, Lithospermum officinale L., Borago officinalis L.,
and Anchusa officinalis Gouan (Appendix 1) to ascertain whether
these markers are applicable to genera other than Alkanna.
All primer pairs gave expected size products in E. plantagineum,
and 14 amplified in L. officinale, E. vulgare, and all tested species of
Alkanna (Table 3). In contrast, only ~50% of the tested primer pairs
had expected size bands in B. officinalis and A. officinalis (Table 3).
CONCLUSIONS
Through mining COS markers, a first set of microsatellite markers was developed for A. tinctoria. The observed genetic diversity
indices and level of polymorphism in A. tinctoria showed that
these markers could be useful for genotyping and genetic structure
© 2019 Ahmad et al.
http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/AppsPlantSci
Ahmad et al.—Alkanna tinctoria microsatellites
Note: – = no amplification; ≡ = multiple bands; ND = not determined.
a
Voucher and locality information for A. graeca, A. hellenica, A. sfikasiana, and E. vulgare are provided in Appendix 1. Lithospermum officinale (Clone 10 and Clone 21) and E. plantagineum (Clone 2 and Clone 3) individuals were provided by
INOQ GmbH, Germany. Anchusa officinalis (accession no. BVAL-901753) and B. officinalis (accession no. BVAL-901040) seeds were purchased from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety.
–
400
–
200
220
≡
120
–
ND
–
200
130
–
150
130
200
250
–
300
–
–
220
≡
–
–
ND
230
200
130
–
150
130
–
250
160
150
230
200
220
≡
120
120
≡
250
200
130
–
150
130
200
250
160
–
230
200
220
≡
120
120
≡
230
200
130
150
150
130
250
250
C2
C3
C5
C9
C12
C13
C14
C16
C20
C24
C29
C30b
C32
C35
C41
C42
C45
160
150
230
200
220
≡
120
120
≡
230
200
130
150
150
130
250
250
160
150
230
200
220
≡
120
120
≡
230
200
130
150
150
130
250
250
160
150
230
200
220
260
120
120
ND
250
200
130
150
150
130
200
250
160
150
230
–
220
≡
120
120
ND
250
200
130
150
150
130
200
250
Borago officinalis
(n = 2)
Anchusa officinalis
(n = 2)
Lithospermum
officinale (n = 2)
Echium plantagineum
(n = 2)
Echium vulgare
(n = 6)
Alkanna sfikasiana
(n = 6)
Alkanna hellenica
(n = 6)
Alkanna graeca
(n = 6)
Locus
TABLE 3. Cross-species amplification of 17 polymorphic microsatellite markers developed for Alkanna tinctoria in eight different species in the Boraginaceae, with approximate sizes of amplified products given
in base pairs.a
Applications in Plant Sciences 2019 7(10): e11296
•
4 of 5
analysis in this species. Successful amplification of these loci suggests their potential utility to other related taxa in the Boraginaceae.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank A. Sessitsch and our partners in
MICROMETABOLITE project, especially N. Fokialakis, A. N.
Assimopoulou, N. Krigas, E. Maloupa, G. Brader, and P. Roedel for
the provision of plant material used in this study. This project has
received financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 721635).
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
M.A. designed the study and performed in silico analysis and lab
work. D.L. and K.H.H. provided support in lab work, and C.L. and
E.M.S. supervised the work. All authors read and approved the final
version of the manuscript.
DATA AVAILABILITY
Nucleotide sequences for the developed markers are provided in
Appendix S1 and Appendix S2.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Additional Supporting Information may be found online in the
supporting information tab for this article.
APPENDIX S1. Nucleotide sequences of polymorphic conserved
ortholog set–simple sequence repeat (COS-SSR) markers developed in Alkanna tinctoria. These nucleotide sequences are assembled from the RNA-Seq data set of Arnebia euchroma.
APPENDIX S2. Nucleotide sequences of monomorphic conserved
ortholog set–simple sequence repeat (COS-SSR) markers developed in Alkanna tinctoria. These nucleotide sequences are assembled from the RNA-Seq data set of Arnebia euchroma.
LITERATURE CITED
Beier, S., T. Thiel, T. Münch, U. Scholz, and M. Mascher. 2017. MISA-web: A web
server for microsatellite prediction. Bioinformatics 33: 2583–2585.
Bolger, A. M., M. Lohse, and B. Usadel. 2014. Trimmomatic: A flexible trimmer
for Illumina sequence data. Bioinformatics 30: 2114–2120.
Chapman, M. A. 2015. Transcriptome sequencing and marker development for
four underutilized legumes. Applications in Plant Sciences 3(2): 1400111.
Cock, P. J. A., J. M. Chilton, B. Grüning, J. E. Johnson, and N. Soranzo. 2015. NCBI
BLAST+ integrated into Galaxy. GigaScience 4: 39.
Coppi, A., F. Selvi, and M. Bigazzi. 2006. Chromosome studies in Mediterranean
species of Boraginaceae. Flora Mediterranea 16: 253–274.
Deng, X., Q. Chen, L. Qiang, M. Chi, N. Xie, Y. Wu, M. Yao, et al. 2018. Development
of a porcine full-thickness burn hypertrophic scar model and investigation
of the effects of shikonin on hypertrophic scar remediation. Frontiers in
Pharmacology 9: 590.
© 2019 Ahmad et al.
Applications in Plant Sciences 2019 7(10): e11296
Ahmad et al.—Alkanna tinctoria microsatellites
Dimopoulos, P., T. Raus, E. Bergmeier, T. Constantinidis, G. Iatrou, S. Kokkini,
A. Strid, and D. Tzanoudakis. 2013. Vascular plants of Greece: An annotated
checklist. Englera, vol. 31. Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum
Berlin-Dahlem, Berlin, Germany.
Grabherr, M. G., B. J. Haas, M. Yassour, J. Z. Levin, D. A. Thompson, I. Amit, X.
Adiconis, et al. 2011. Full-length transcriptome assembly from RNA-Seq data
without a reference genome. Nature Biotechnology 29: 644–652.
Lefort, F., and G. C. Douglas. 1999. An efficient micro-method of DNA isolation
from mature leaves of four hardwood tree species Acer, Fraxinus, Prunus and
Quercus. Annals of Forest Science 56: 259–263.
Li, W., and A. Godzik. 2006. CD-HIT: A fast program for clustering and comparing
large sets of protein or nucleotide sequences. Bioinformatics 22: 1658–1659.
Malik, S., S. Bhushan, M. Sharma, and P. S. Ahuja. 2016. Biotechnological approaches to the production of shikonins: A critical review with recent updates. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 36: 327–340.
Meriman, P. G., and P. H. van Tienderen. 2004. Genotype and Genodive: Two
programs for the analysis of genetic diversity of asexual organisms. Molecular
Ecology Notes 4: 792–794.
•
5 of 5
Papageorgiou, V. P., A. N. Assimopoulou, E. A. Couladouros, D. Hepworth, and
K. C. Nicolaou. 1999. The chemistry and biology of alkannin, shikonin, and
related naphthazarin natural products. Angewandte Chemie International
Edition 38: 270–301.
Schuelke, M. 2000. An economic method for the fluorescent labeling of PCR
fragments. Nature Biotechnology 18: 233–234.
Valdés, B. 2011. Boraginaceae. In Euro+Med Plantbase: The information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Website http://ww2.bgbm.
org/EuroPlusMed/ [accessed 30 January 2019].
van der Beek, J. G., R. Verkerk, P. Zabel, and P. Lindhout. 1992. Mapping strategy
for resistance genes in tomato based on RFLPs between cultivars: Cf9 (resistance to Cladosporium fulvum) on chromosome 1. Theoretical and Applied
Genetics 84: 106–112.
Yan, Y., F. Tan, H. Miao, H. Wang, and Y. Cao. 2019. Effect of
shikonin against Candida albicans biofilms. Frontiers in Microbiology 10:
1085.
Zhang, S., Q. Gao, W. Li, L. Zhu, Q. Shang, S. Feng, J. Jia, et al. 2019. Shikonin inhibits cancer cell cycling by targeting Cdc25s. BMC Cancer 19: 20.
APPENDIX 1. Geographic coordinates, locality, and voucher information for plant species used in this study.a
Species
Alkanna tinctoria Tausch
Alkanna tinctoria
Alkanna tinctoria
Alkanna tinctoria
Alkanna graeca Boiss. & Spruner
Alkanna hellenica Rech. f.
Alkanna sfikasiana Tan, Vold & Strid
Echium vulgare L.
Population
Geographic coordinates
Location
N
IPEN accession no.
AT3
AT4
AT9
AT10
AG1
AH1
AS1
Ev
40.630447°N, 22.971729°E
40.64277°N, 22.99777°E
37.69021°N, 24.05341°E
37.87581°N, 23.77331°E
37.433121°N, 22.685267°E
37.900980°N, 2.877485°E
37.339370°N, 22.602229°E
48.32097°N, 16.06838°E
Thessaloniki, Greece
Thessaloniki, Greece
Sounion, Greece
Imittos, Greece
Parnonas, Greece
Nea Corintheas, Greece
Parnonas, Greece
Tulln, Austria
17
18
16
16
6
6
6
6
GR-1-BBGK-18,6081
GR-1-BBGK-18,6091
GR-1-BBGK-18,6135
GR-1-BBGK-18,6136
GR-1-BBGK-18,6138
GR-1-BBGK-18,6137
GR-1-BBGK-18,6139
Note: IPEN = International Plant Exchange Network; N = number of individuals sampled.
All of the living material from Alkanna species used in this study is deposited and maintained at the Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization–
Demeter (HAO-Demeter), Thessaloniki, Greece.
a
APPENDIX 2. Characteristics of 10 monomorphic conserved ortholog set–simple sequence repeat markers markers identified in Alkanna tinctoria.a
Locus
C1
C7
C8
C11
C18
C30a
C31a
C36a
C39
C47
Primer sequences (5′–3′)
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
F:
R:
GAAACTACCCTTCAGSAAGG
TCCTTTTCTGACAATTTGCG
ACTTCAGCTCCAGCACCAC
CCAATTGGGCAAAAACTGAG
TGATGARAATGATTGGCATG
TGGAAYTTGATGATAGRAAGTCCC
TTATGTAGAGCTCTCAAATTCC
CTGTTTCTTCATAGTATTACCTGG
CCCTCCTCCAAATCTTGATC
GGTGATGATGTTAGCTTACAC
GCGGTACCCTCAATAAAATAAGC
GCGCTTCAATCGATCATCGC
GCCTGGGAACAAGTATAAT
TTCCAAATATTGTTCCACATATG
GGATCTTCAGTTGGTACTCTGG
AACATTGAACCAACTGAACC
CTTGTGGGGCTTGTAATTTATGC
GCAGAATGTTGGGGGCTATTGG
AGGCTAATTGGTCTGATGAAGAAG
GCATGAGGGAAATCATTATCTG
Repeat motif
Allele size (bp)
Ta (°C)
(ATG)7
155
50
(GAA)6
129
62
(GAT)6
113
57
(GAT)14
155
53
(TC)7
205
56
(GAG)7
241
56
(CTCAGG)6
224
53
(ATC)5
158
53
(AT)8
123
56
(TTC)6
181
56
Note: Ta = annealing temperature.
a
Nucleotide sequences of each locus are provided in Appendix S2.
http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/AppsPlantSci
© 2019 Ahmad et al.