Identification of markers linked to agronomic traits in globe artichoke

Color head and precocity of production are two important agronomic traits in globe artichoke which determine the acceptance of the product in the market. 118 F2 plants were analyzed for two agronomic traits, color head and precocity of production. Bulked Segregant Analysis (BSA) and Sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) were used to detect molecular markers linked to the traits. Ten plants with the same trait were used to constitute the bulks, which were screened with seven SRAP pair primers. We detected one band/marker that may be linked to the green color head and one band/marker that may be associated with precocity in head production. The results obtained show that the BSA and SRAP analyses are useful to identify molecular markers associated with agronomic traits. The identified markers will potentially be used in molecular marker aided-selection (MAS) for breeding programs in globe artichoke