Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) and next-generation sequencing combined: genome-wide, high throughput, highly informative genotyping for molecular breeding of Eucalyptus

Background Wider genome coverage and higher throughput genotyping methods have become increasingly important to meet the resolution and speed necessary for a variety of applications in genomics and molecular breeding of forest trees. Developed more than 10 years ago [1], the Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) has experienced an increasing interest worldwide for it has efficiently satisfied the requirements of throughput, genome coverage and inter-specific transferability for over 40 different plant species to date, including Eucalyptus[2] and recently Pinus (Dione Alves-Freitas, this meeting). DArT is based on genome complexity reduction using restriction enzymes, followed by hybridization to microarrays to simultaneously assay hundreds to thousands of markers across a genome. Genome complexity reduction for genotyping has now been taken to another level when combined to next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. Such a strategy has been used for rapid SNP discovery in different organisms [3], and proposed as a way to genotype with RAD (Restriction-associated DNA) sequencing [4]and recently by a similar method generally termed GbS (Genotyping-by-Sequencing)[5]. In this work we assessed the power of the now well established DArT marker platform in combination with Illumina short read sequencing to generate a linkage map for a segregating outcrossed F1 population derived from E. grandis BRASUZ1, the donor of the Eucalyptus reference genome.