Genetic Diversity of Asian Cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.) in China Evaluated by Microsatellite Analysis

Asian cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.) was once widely cultivated in China. It has also been a valuable source of genetic variation in modern cotton improvement. In this study, the genetic diversity of selected G. arboreum accessions collected from different regions of China was evaluated by microsatellite (simple sequence repeats, SSRs) analysis. Of the 358 microsatellite markers analyzed, 74 primer pairs detected 165 polymorphic DNA fragments among 39 G. arboreum accessions examined. Twelve accessions could be fingerprinted with one or more SSR markers. With the exception of two accessions, DaZiJie and DaZiMian, genetic similarity coefficients among all accessions ranged from 0.58 to 0.87 suggesting high level of genetic variation in the G. arboreum collections. The UPGMA dendrogram constructed from genetic similarity coefficients revealed positive correlation between cluster groupings and geographic distances. In addition, comparison of the microsatellite amplification profiles of the diploid G. arboreum and tetraploid Gossypium hirsutum L. found that size distribution of amplified products in G. arboreum was dispersive and that of G. hirsutum was relatively concentrated. The information on the genetic diversity and SSR fingerprinting from this study is useful for developing mapping populations for constructing diploid cotton genetic linkage map and tagging economically important traits.Diqiu Liu, Xiaoping Guo: These two authors contributed equally to this work.     

Establishment of sesame germplasm core collection in China

A sesame core collection containing 453 accessions was established by assessing genetic diversity of 4251 accessions collected in China. The accessions in the whole collection were grouped based on their origin, varietal and agro-ecological type. A computer program was used to cluster the data of 14 traits from the random small sample. Ward's method was chosen as the desirable method for clustering sesame germplasm resources. A set of technical methods for establishing core collection has been developed through determining the number of selected accessions based on the diversity distribution. The agronomic traits of the pre-selected core collection were investigated and tested in three ecological locations in China for two years. Among six qualitative traits, including plant type and flower color in a total of 5304 accessions, 97.85% was completely the same as the original data, and three quantitative traits, including growth period and plant height, were significantly and positively related with the original data. The representativeness assessment of the final core collection indicated that 35 phenotypes of 10 qualitative traits in the core collection were basically similar to those of the pre-selected core collection. Six feature values such as mean, standard deviation etc. of four quantitative traits including oil content and 1000-seed weight were close to those of the pre-selected core collection. The final core collection possessed a fair representativeness of the pre-selected core collection.     

Genetic Diversity Among Traditional Ethiopian Highland Maize Accessions Assessed by Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Markers

Over the past three centuries, maize has become adapted to complex environmental conditions in the highlands of Ethiopia. We analyzed 62 traditional Ethiopian highland maize accessions, using 20 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and 15 morphological traits, to assess genetic diversity and relationships among these accessions and to assess the level of correlation between phenotypic and genetic distances. The accessions varied significantly for all of the measured morphological traits. The average number of alleles per locus was 4.9. Pair-wise genetic dissimilarity coefficients ranged from 0.27 to 0.63 with a mean of 0.49. Ward minimum variance cluster analysis showed that accessions collected from the Northern agroecology were distinct from the Western and Southern agroecologies. However, there was no differentiation between the Western and Southern accessions. This suggested gene flow between these regions. The relationship between morphological and SSR-based distances was significant and positive (r = 0.43, p = 0.001). The high genetic diversity observed among these set of accessions, suggests ample opportunity for the development of improved varieties for different agroecologies of Ethiopia. From conservation perspective, sampling many accessions from all agroecologies would be an effective way of capturing genetic variation for future collections and conservation.     

Development of Core Collection in Pigeonpea [<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cajanus cajan</Emphasis> (L.) Millspaugh] using Geographic and Qualitative Morphological Descriptors

Pigeonpea is an important pulse crop grown by smallholder farmers in the semi-arid tropics. Most of the pigeonpea cultivars grown to date are selections from the landraces, with a narrow genetic base. With the expansion of the crop to newer areas, problems of local importance are to be addressed. Hence, an economically feasible and faster germplasm evaluation mechanism, such as a core collection, is required. This article describes the development of core collection from 12,153 pigeonpea accessions collected from 56 countries and maintained at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. The germplasm accessions from 56 countries were placed under 14 clusters based primarily on geographic origin. Data on 14 qualitative morphological traits were used for cluster formation by Ward’s method. From each cluster ≈10% accessions were randomly selected to constitute a core collection comprising 1290 accessions. Mean comparisons using Newman–Keuls test, variances’ comparisons by Levene’s test, and comparison of frequency distribution by χ²-test indicated that the core collection was similar to that of the entire collection for various traits and the genetic variability available in the entire collection is preserved in the core collection. The Shannon–Weaver diversity index for different traits was also similar for both entire and core collection. All the important phenotypic associations between different traits available in the entire collection were preserved in the core collection. The core collection constituted in the present study facilitates identification of useful traits economically and expeditiously for use in pigeonpea improvement.     

Development of an algorithm identifying maximally diverse core collections

The development of a core collection, one which represents the genetic diversity of a crop with minimal redundancy and increases utility of the collection as a whole, is especially important as the funding for germplasm collections decreases. With limited resources, it is difficult to manage large germplasm collections and disperse genetically diverse germplasm to plant breeders. An algorithm was developed to assist in selection of core collections based on estimates of genetic distance. The criteria for selection of the maximum genetically diverse set were based on rankings of genetic distance between an accession with respect to all other accessions. Depending on the size core which a user wished, a zone around each selected accession was determined and no other accession within these limits was selected. The premise for the algorithm was that the genetic variability represented in the core must be representative of the distribution of genetic distances within the population of interest. In the present study, the algorithm was used with RAPD-marker-based estimates of genetic distance for 270 Theobroma cacao L. accessions and 134 Capsicum accessions that chose a set representing 18.5% of the population and representing the breadth of RAPD-based variation.     

Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tadehagi</Emphasis> in southwest China evaluated by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR)

There are many valuable Tadehagi accessions in southwest China, but it is unknown that the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of these Tadehagi resources. This report is the first study in which 41 primers of inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) were used to assess the genetic diversity of 36 Tadehagi accessions from 3 provinces in the southwest of China. Totally, 30 usable ISSR primers detected 163 polymorphic bands among the 36 accessions, which suggested high utility of ISSR primers in the genetic analysis of Tadehagi accessions. Genetic similarity coefficients among all of the accessions ranged from 0.54 to 0.92 with the average of 0.79 based on the ISSR data, indicating high level of genetic variation in Tadehagi resources from the southwest of China. As for the 3 population, Hainan population had the maximum average genetic similarity coefficients of 0.81, while similarity coefficient of Guangxi and Yunnan population was 0.75 and 0.74, respectively. All the 36 Tadehagi accessions were divided into 4 groups in the UPGMA dendrogram constructed from genetic similarity coefficients. The Tadehagi accessions from Yunnan and Guangxi provinces showed more genetic variation and occupied the bottom of the dendrogram. On the contrary, those from Hainan Province had less genetic variation and clustered in the middle and top of the dendrogram. The information on the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship from this study is propitious to construct a core germplasm collection and develop novel Tadehagi cultivars with desired economic traits.     

Chinese Cornus officinalis: genetic resources, genetic diversity and core collection

Cornus officinalis is plant species that is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine. To help the efficient utilization and conservation of this species, the genetic diversity of 73 germplasm resources collected from Zhejiang, Henan and Shaanxi provinces in China were used in a primary core collection. The germplasm resources were classified nine types and the analysis of morphological traits and chemical components showed wide variations among the germplasm types. The primary core collection of C. officinalis was evaluated by using 18 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers and a mini core collection was developed based on three strategies on construction of a core germplasm resources. The ISSR results showed that a total of 233 alleles were identified in these 73 accessions, the genetic diversity (P?=?91.02%, H?=?0.293, I?=?0.446) revealed with an average of 2 alleles per locus. The genetic diversity index analysis suggested that there is a great richness and uniqueness of genetic variation in this primary core collection. Cluster analysis by UPGMA and STRUCTURE placed the 73-germplasm resources into four linkage clusters. Almost all samples from one sampling location were clustered together. Compared to the RS and SW strategy, the LDSS strategy proved to be more representative in the core collection of C. officinalis. Finally, a mini core collections by LDSS, composed of 18 accessions (24.66% of the primary core collection), let more than 94.85% of polymorphic loci remained, 97.55% of the observed number of alleles and 99.28% of the effective number of alleles of the mini core collection, respectively. The Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon’s Information index of core collection were 0.294 and 0.443, respectively. Taken all together, the results indicated that mini core collections constructed by the LDSS strategy represented their primary core collections and provided a rational framework for intensive surveys of natural variation in C. officinalis genetic resources.     

Genetic diversity in Ethiopian hexaploid and tetraploid wheat germplasm assessed by microsatellite markers

The genetic diversity of a subset of the Ethiopian genebank collection maintained at the IPK Gatersleben was investigated applying 22 wheat microsatellites (WMS). The material consisted of 135 accessions belonging to the species T. aestivum L. (69 accessions), T. aethiopicum Jacubz. (54 accessions) and T. durum Desf. (12 accessions), obtained from different collection missions. In total 286 alleles were detected, ranging from 4 to 26 per WMS. For the three species T. aestivum, T. aethiopicum and T. durum on average 9.9, 7.9 and 7.9 alleles per locus, respectively, were observed. The average PIC values per locus were highly comparable for the three species analysed. Considering the genomes it was shown that the largest numbers of alleles per locus occurred in the B genome (18.4 alleles per locus) compared to A (10.1 alleles per locus) and D (8.2 alleles per locus) genomes. Genetic dissimilarity values between accessions were used to produce a dendrogram. All accessions could be distinguished, clustering in two large groups. Whereas T. aestivum formed a separate cluster, no clear discrimination between the two tetraploid species T. durum and T. aethiopicum was observed.     

Analysis of Genetic Diversity in the Brassica napus L. Gene Pool Using SSR Markers

Genetic diversity throughout the rapeseed (Brassica napus ssp. napus) primary gene pool was examined by obtaining detailed molecular genetic information at simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci for a broad range of winter and spring oilseed, fodder and leaf rape gene bank accessions. The plant material investigated was selected from a preliminary B. napus core collection developed from European gene bank material, and was intended to cover as broadly as possible the diversity present in the species, excluding swedes (B. napus ssp. napobrassica (L.) Hanelt). A set of 96 genotypes was characterised using publicly available mapped SSR markers spread over the B. napus genome. Allelic information from 30 SSR primer combinations amplifying 220 alleles at 51 polymorphic loci provided unique genetic fingerprints for all genotypes. UPGMA clustering enabled identification of four general groups with increasing genetic diversity as follows (1) spring oilseed and fodder; (2) winter oilseed; (3) winter fodder; (4) vegetable genotypes. The most extreme allelic variation was observed in a spring kale from the United Kingdom and a Japanese spring vegetable genotype, and two winter rape accessions from Korea and Japan, respectively. Unexpectedly the next most distinct genotypes were two old winter oilseed varieties from Germany and Ukraine, respectively. A number of other accessions were also found to be genetically distinct from the other material of the same type. The molecular genetic information gained enables the identification of untapped genetic variability for rapeseed breeding and is potentially interesting with respect to increasing heterosis in oilseed rape hybrids.     

Analysis of genetic diversity in a sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) germplasm collection from Tanzania as revealed by AFLP

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is the fifth most important crop in the developing countries after rice, wheat, maize and cassava. The amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) method was used to study the genetic diversity and relationships of sweet potato accessions in the germplasm collection of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro and Sugarcane Research Institute, Kibaha, Tanzania. AFLP analysis of 97 sweet potato accessions using ten primer combinations gave a total of 202 clear polymorphic bands. Each one of the 97 sweet potato accessions could be distinguished based on these primer combinations. Estimates of genetic similarities were obtained by the Dice coefficient, and a final dendrogram was constructed with the un-weight pair-group method using arithmetic average. AFLP-based genetic similarity varied from 0.388 to 0.941, with a mean of 0.709. Cluster analysis using genetic similarity divided the accessions into two main groups suggesting that there are genetic relationships among the accessions. Principal Coordinate analysis confirmed the pattern of the cluster analysis. Analysis of molecular variance revealed greater variation within regions (96.19%) than among regions (3.81%). The results from the AFLP analysis revealed a relatively low genetic diversity among the germplasm accessions and the genetic distances between regions were low. A maximally diverse subset of 13 accessions capturing 97% of the molecular markers diversity was identified. We were able to detect duplicates accessions in the germplasm collection using the highly polymorphic markers obtained by AFLP, which were found to be an efficient tool to characterize the genetic diversity and relationships of sweet potato accessions in the germplasm collection in Tanzania.     

Extent and Pattern of Genetic Diversity for Morpho-agronomic Traits in Ethiopian Highland Pulse Landraces: I. Field Pea (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pisum sativum</Emphasis> L.)

An experiment was conducted in 2001 at Holetta and Kulumsa, Ethiopia, to study the extent and pattern of genetic diversity in Ethiopian field pea (Pisum sativum L.) landraces. One hundred forty-eight germplasm accessions were grown in an alpha lattice design with 2 replications. Data on 12 traits were collected and analyzed. Differences among the accessions were significant for most of the traits (except number of seeds/ pod) at each location even though differences pooled over location were mostly non-significant. The accessions were grouped into five clusters of different sizes. Accessions from the southern part of the country (Arsi) distributed overall clusters while those from the northern half (North and South Wello, North Gonder and North Shewa) fell into clusters C₁ to C₃. Cumulative effects of a number of characters dictated differentiation of the accessions into clusters. There was no definite relationship between geographic diversity and genetic diversity as overlapping was encountered in clustering pattern among accessions from different parts of the country. Accessions from different regions might have similar genetic background and those from the same origin might also have different genetic background. Therefore, geographic diversity should not necessarily be used as an index of genetic diversity and parental selection should be based on a systematic study of genetic diversity in a specific population. Genetic distances among most of the clusters were significant that crosses between parents selected out of them are expected to generate desirable genetic recombination. Selection should also consider the special advantages of each cluster and each accession within a cluster. Future germplasm collection, conservation and breeding efforts should focus not only on inter-regional diversity but also on intra-regional diversity.     

Biomass production and related characters in the core collection of Pisum germplasm

Retention of residue on the soil surface following harvest is an effective method of reducing soil erosion from both wind and water. The pea crop produces small amounts of residue to effectively reduce soil erosion. Severe erosion occurs in pea production areas such as the Palouse Region of the US Pacific Northwest (PNW) when low residue crops such as spring pea or lentil are followed by fall-sown wheat. The current study was conducted to determine the range of total aboveground biomass (TAB), seed yield, and straw (residue) production from the plant identification (PI) accessions that comprise the core collection of Pisum germplasm. In addition, the potential for increasing seed yield and straw production simultaneously was evaluated. Three hundred and ninety PI accessions were screened in the field in 1996 and 1997. The variation for TAB, seed yield and straw production among the PI accessions exceeded that of the controls both years. Seed yield was positively correlated with straw production (r = 0.81, p< 0.01) indicating that seed and straw production can be increased simultaneously through positive selection for both traits. Significant favorable variation is present among accessions in the USDA core collection of Pisum germplasm which could be used to increase both seed yield and total biomass production of adapted breeding lines.     

Patterns of morphological diversity in relation to geographical origins of wild Lupinus angustifolius from the Aegean region

Summary Patterns of morphological diversity were examined in relation to geographical origins of 157 accessions of wild Lupinus angustifolius from the Aegean region using multivariate techniques. Genetic diversity was extremely large for most morphological traits, with significant variation detected among localities in Greece and within and between collection sites for some traits. Canonical variates and correlation analysis showed that early flowering, tall and large-seeded accessions were associated with warm winters and drier climates in southern Greece. Thirteen groups of accessions were identified by hierarchical cluster analysis of 19 morphological traits, accounting for 81 % of genotype and 41 % of genotype x trait sums of squares. The distinguishing features of these groups were clarified by principal coordinates analysis. Two groups, with very desirable agronomic characteristics, originated from the Dhodhekanisos Islands (Kos, Leros, Patmos) in the south-eastern Aegean: these had rapid and tall growth, prolific podding on the main stem, pods high off the ground, many upper lateral branches, large leaves, pods and seeds, and high seed yield. Accessions from the Kikladhes Islands of the central Aegean were extremely variable and those from Naxos Island were represented in 9 of the 13 groups. Accessions from northern Greece grouped together as later flowering, shorter, and smaller-seeded types, but some accessions from the southern Greek Islands were grouped with the northern mainland types. This study identified regions in Greece, such as the south-eastern islands, where further collection may be warranted for traits of obvious agronomic value for domesticated L. angustifolius. Extreme morphological variability occurs within and between collection sites, and between localities in Greece.     

Genetic diversity of wild soybean (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Glycine soja</Emphasis> Sieb. et Zucc.) and Japanese cultivated soybeans [<Emphasis Type="Italic">G. max</Emphasis> (L.) Merr.] based on microsatellite (SSR) analysis and the selection of a core collection

Wild soybeans, Glycine soja, are a source of genetic variation to improve soybeans. To improve the efficiency evaluation of conserved germplasm a core or mini-core collection approach that maximizes allelic diversity in a proportion of the whole collection has frequently been advocated. The genetic diversity of a wild soybean collection (1,305 accessions) plus Japanese cultivated soybeans (53 accessions) were analyzed at 20 SSR marker loci. Higher levels of allelic diversity were found in wild soybeans (28 alleles per locus) than Japanese cultivated soybean (five alleles per locus). The genetic distance between wild soybeans from different regions reflected their proximity. Accessions from Russia consisted of a diverse array of alleles resulting in accessions being spread further apart in a PCA plot than accessions from other regions. Accessions of wild soybean from Korea included many rare alleles and thus had a high representation in the core collection. The two core collections developed here, traditional and mini, consisted of 192 accessions with 97% of the allelic diversity (14% of the whole collection) and 53 accessions with 62.4% of the allelic diversity (5% of the whole collection), respectively.