Abies pinsapo Boiss. Transcriptome Sequencing and Molecular Marker Detection: A Novel Genetic Resources for a Relict Mediterranean Fir

Abstract

Predicting the coping responses of tree species to climate change is, in many cases, limited by a lack of fundamental genetic insights, such as detailed knowledge of their genomes. Relict tree species may serve as models to assess the general mechanisms and patterns of forest tree responses to the changing climate and to explore the adaptive capacity of trees. Here, we focus on Abies pinsapo, the southernmost European fir, whose marginal populations are prone to extinction. To discover new insights into the genetics of this species, Illumina de novo transcriptome sequencing was performed. We obtained a 24 Gb transcriptome dataset, and the assembly identified 97,768 unigenes with an average length of 1,100 nucleotides. A large number of molecular markers, 100,949 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and 5,663 microsatellites (SSRs) were detected, and a gene-associated SNP validation pipeline was developed. The estimated accuracy of the SNP prediction was 55 percent. The novel reference transcriptome and the large number of molecular markers specific to Abies pinsapo reported in this study represent valuable resources for further genetic analyses and conservation guidelines for this endangered tree species and other Abies species.