Genetic mapping of sex-linked markers in Salix viminalis L.

A total of 88 selective primer combinations were screened using bulked males and females sampled from four families of Salix viminalis. A total of more than 1000 polymorphic fragments was obtained, of which only four cosegregated with sex. These four sex-linked markers were subsequently scored in individuals that were used for bulked sample preparation in additional individuals of the same families, and in individuals in other families. A pair of primers that amplified the sex-linked fragments was constructed from one of the sex-linked amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fragments. In hybridization of Southern blot filters with the sex-linked DNA fragments, the band was present in females and absent in males, but the opposite pattern of band segregation (a band found in males and no band in females) was never observed in either the AFLP or RFLP experiments. Two of the sex-linked markers were placed on a linkage map. They both map at the same location in a linkage group comprising other markers not segregating with sex. Our data suggest that a single locus governs the sex determination and that nonrecombining sex chromosomes are absent in S. viminalis. A close association was found between skewed sex ratio and segregation distortion at this locus.