GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MICROSATELLITE MARKERS FROM CATTAIL PLANT SPECIES THROUGHOUT THE MIDWEST

Cattail plants (Typha spp.) are found in wetlands through the Midwest. While T. latifolia is considered native, T. angustifolia is considered exotic. Their hybrid, T. x glauca, is the most invasive of the cattail species. Both T. angustifolia and T. x glauca alter wetlands’ ecosystem function and biodiversity. Due to their hybridization, identification based on morphological traits is no longer reliable due to high overlap of these traits among the three species. Therefore, molecular techniques are a more promising way of identifying the different species of cattails. Our research group has successfully identified six diagnostic microsatellite primer pairs and we have tested their variability within populations of each species. In this study, we are assessing inter-population variability of microsatellite markers (i.e., among population variability) by collecting samples from a variety of geographic locations throughout the Midwest. At each field site, we used morphological characters to identify the Typha species, and we collected leaf tissue from at least five individuals. DNA will be extracted with a Qiagen DNeasy® Plant Mini Kit and the six diagnostic microsatellite primer pairs will be amplified through the use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Results obtained will be visualized in a Beckman Coulter gene sequencer and analyzed in order to determine inter-population variability of such markers. This is the first study that addresses geographic differences in molecular markers for cattail species. Our results will allow to determine if these microsatellite markers are robust enough to use on a wide geographic range of the three species.