Résumé
In 2000, was published (Lespinasse et al. 2000) the 1st genetic map of rubber tree (Hevea spp.). This saturated map encompassed 717 loci, allowing an efficient coverage of the 18 chromosomes of the Hevea genome, and it can be considered as the reference map for the H. brasiliensis species. Nevertheless, the molecular markers used were manly RFLPs and AFLPs. RFLP markers proved to be very efficient in terms of genetic polymorphism and are sparsely distributed on rubber tree genome, but their applications to genotyping of large progenies are time and cost consuming. AFLPs were very useful PCR based markers, allowing rapid identification and mapping of hundreds of markers. But they are less informative than RFLPs as segregating AFLP bands are usually not locus specific and, in consequence, do not allow comparative alignment between independent maps. We thus developed Hevea specific microsatellite (alias SSRs for Simple Sequence Repeat) markers which potentially combine the advantages of RFLPs (polymorphism, abundance in plant genomes and locus specificity) and of AFLPs (high output genotyping thanks to PCR technique). Integration of SSRs in the Hevea reference map confirmed the usefulness of such molecular markers in terms of cost, rapidity, genome coverage and locus specificity. This last property means that selecting a set of SSR markers from the reference map allows obtaining a colinear map, whatever the Hevea clones used as progenitors of the mapping populations. Thus, the creation of a dense SSR map of rubber tree is very useful for genetic mapping and comparison of chromosome locations of Quantitative Traits Loci (QTLs) obtained from different mapping projects. (Résumé d'auteur)