Morphological and Molecular Genetic Verification of Interspecific Hybrid Salix x zhataica (Salicaceae) from Central Yakutia

The results of morphological and molecular genetic analysis confirming the hybrid nature of Salix x zhataica Efimova, Shurduk et Ahti are presented. In particular, according to the complex of phenotypic features (on the basis of discriminant analysis), the hybrid, which resulted, apparently, from interspecific hybridization of S. brachypoda (Trautv. et C.A. Mey.) Kom. and S. pyrolifolia Ledeb., is closer to S. brachypoda, indirectly indicating that this parent can be maternal. The polymorphism of molecular-genetic markers such as nuclear microsatellite loci and nucleotide sequences of the ITS region was analyzed in order to verify the hybrid and its parent species, S. brachypoda (Trautv. et C.A. Mey.) Kom. and S. pyrolifolia Ledeb. For instance, in the ITS region, two single nucleotide transitions were found, which indicate that the hybrid borrowed the corresponding nucleotides from both parent species. The given data indicate that S. x zhataica is indeed a hybrid between S. brachypoda and S. pyrolifolia.