Marker-Trait Association for Breeding Fodder Galega (Galega orientalis Lam.)

As of 2021, 17 varieties of the fodder galega (Galega orientalis Lam.) were recorded in the State Register of Breeding Achievements. All of them were created from the introduced species of wild populations or the Gale variety with the methods of mass and individual selection for specific environmental conditions. Most of them are generally of the same morphological type due to the initial material of the common genetic basis used in the survey. Therefore, the problems of variety identification, copyright protection, and testing the crop plants cultivated for their seeds are most urgent for breeders. The approach to breeding the varieties with the marker-associated morphological traits makes these problems much easier to solve. At the same time, the importance of modern methods based on the molecular DNA-markers as the tools in addition to the commonly used approaches for evaluating the advanced breeding material and varieties tends to increase in recent years. The objectives of the survey are to create the fodder galega variety with the marker-associated phenotypic trait and to perform the molecular genetic analysis for revealing the DNA markers informative in variety identification. In order to solve the target tasks, plants of different floral colors were selected from the Gale variety population. The methods for the successive plant propagation in several generations and the negative selection have made it possible to sustain the pink and white floral color variations within the experimental populations. It was found that 98% of plants retained this feature in the fodder galega progeny with pink flowers. After a competitive trial, this population was registered as the West variety of the fodder galega with a marker-associated morphotypic trait. In terms of the forage and seed yield performance, the West variety is 15–34% more efficient than the Gale variety. The PCR test performed with 10 SSR primer pairs and 6 SRAP primer combinations, compared to the blue- and white-flower plant populations, allowed us to determine two combinations of SRAP markers: ME3-EM4 and ME3-EM2, informative in variety identification. They may be used as an additional tool for the DNA-based identification of a new variety and its genetics certificate package description.