Diallel Analysis of Yield and It’s related Traits in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under Well-watered and Water-stressed Conditions

Drought stress is one of the factors which influence sunflower production. Hence, breeding for tolerance to drought stress has become a major focus. In this paper, combining ability, gene action and genetic analysis of several characteristics were studied for five sunflower inbred lines and their ten hybrids (fifteen genotypes). The materials were evaluated in two separate experiments using a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications in well-watered and waterstressed states and in field condition. Data were analyzed by Griffing’s diallel analysis model 1 (fixed effects) and method 2 (parents and crosses). Combined analysis of experiments revealed significant differences among genotypes for all studied traits. Combining ability analysis revealed that in well-watered conditions, general and specific combining abilities (GCA and SCA) effects were significant for all studied traits except for the leaf number. In water-stressed condition, GCA and SCA effects were significant for all studied traits except for the head and stem diameter. The Griffing diallel analysis showed that the genotype LR4 could be considered as the best combiner with the highest GCA effect for seed yield per plant, number of filled seed, stem diameter and head diameter in the sunflower breeding programs. In both water treatment conditions the cross ‘RHA266xLR4’ showed the highest positive SCA effects and the highest mean value for seed yield per plant

Genetic Diversity among Iranian Local and Commercial Apple Rootstocks by Using Simple Sequence Repeat Markers

The objective of this research was to evaluate the genetic diversity among twelve apple rootstocks by using 14 simple sequence repeat primer pairs. Generally, 44 alleles were scored at SSR loci. The number of alleles (na) per locus ranged from two to five alleles with an average of 3.14. The maximum effective number of alleles (ne), expected heterozygosity (He), and observed heterozygosity (Hobs) were 2.3, 0.56 and 0.36, respectively. Results showed that the studied genotypes were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in most of studied loci. The polymorphism information content (PIC) varied from 0.5 to 0.86 which confirmed the effectiveness of SSR markers in determination of molecular polymorphism and characterization of the rootstocks genotypes. Cluster analysis using UPGMA algorithm on the basis of Jaccard’s similarity coefficient classified the studied genotypes into three distinct groups. In this study, three Iranian local rootstocks were located in separate groups

Evaluation of Iranian Native Apple (Malus x domestica Borkh) Germplasm using Biochemical and Morphological Characteristics

In this study, fifty six native apple genotypes from different geographical regions of Iran were evaluated based on 16 different biochemical and morphological characters using augment design. Analysis of variance showed significant difference between studied genotypes. Considering descriptive statistics, there was high level of genetic variation in this plant material. Regarding simple correlation between studied characters, fruit weight as one of the most important item, was positively and significantly correlated with fruit volume, leaf size and canopy axile. Principle component analysis revealed that the first seven principle components (PCs) were accounted 74.7% of the total variation. Cluster analysis using Ward method classified the 56 genotypes into four groups. As regards to clustering pattern, distribution of the cultivars was independent from their geographical distribution. The present study shows that Iranian apple genotypes possess high level of genetic variation that is useful for breeding

Flavonoids profile and antioxidant activity in flowers and leaves of hawthorn species (Crataegus spp.) from different regions of Iran

This study was undertaken to determine the total quantity of phenolic and flavonoids, as well as to find out about the HPLC quantification of some individual phenolic compounds (i.e. chlorogenic acid, vitexin 2"-O-rhamnoside, vitexin, rutin, hyperoside, quercetin, and isoquercetin) in flowers and leaves of 56 samples of different hawthorn species (Crataegus spp.) collected from different geographical regions of Iran. The amount of total phenolics ranges from 7.21 to 87.73 mg GAE/g in dry weight of the plant, and the total amount of flavonoids varied amongst species and in different plant organs ranging from 2.27 to 17.40 mg/g dry weight. Chlorogenic acid, vitexin, and vitexin 2"-O-rhamnoside were found to be the most abundant phenolic compounds in the extracts of hawthorn leaves. Meanwhile, chlorogenic acid, hyperoside, and rutin were the most abundant phenolic compounds in the extracts of hawthorn flowers in most genotypes. The antioxidant activity widely varied in species and in different organs of each individual plant, ranging from 0.9 to 4.65 mmol Fe++/g DW plant, calculated through the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) method. Thus, this could provide valuable data for developing breeding strategies and plans; it can also help us in selecting genotypes with high phenolic contents for producing natural antioxidants and other bioactive compounds beneficial for food or the pharmaceutical industries

SIMULTANEOUS SELECTION OF MOST STABLE AND HIGH YIELDING GENOTYPES IN BREEDING PROGRAMS BY NONPARAMETRIC METHODS

Explaining genotype by environment (GE) interaction is important in breedingprograms because environmental effects are very often greater than genotypiceffects in multi-environment trials. Statistical methods that select for high yield andstability have been proposed, but have not been compared for their usefulnessespecially for nonparametric methods. We compared fourteen nonparametricmethods used for analyzing GE interaction at a set of experimental lentil data (11genotypes at 20 environments). Nonparametric methods consist of six Huehn’sstatistics (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6), four Thennarasu’s statistics (NP1, NP2, NP3and NP4), tow Sabaghnia’s statistics (NS1 and NS2), Kang’s RS andnonparametric method of Fox et al. (1990). Considering mean yield versusnonparametric stability values via their plotting in a plot, indicated four differentsections as A, B, C and D. The genotype fall in the section D were the mostfavorable genotypes due to high mean yield as well as high stability performance.Plot of the most nonparametric methods showed that genotypes G1 (1.21 t ha-1), G2(1.34 t ha-1) and G5 (1.38 t ha-1) were the most favorable genotypes and so thesegenotypes considered both yield and stability simultaneously. Although, most ofthe nonparametric methods have static (biological) concept of stability and measurethe real concept of stability but plotting them versus mean yield and selecting thegenotypes of section D, could identify relatively the high mean yield genotypes asthe most stable ones

Genetic variability and traits association in castor bean (Ricinus communis L.)

Genetic diversity of 12 castor bean accessions collected from different geographical regions of Iran was assessed in a randomized complete block design with three replications under filed condition. The data were recorded for 32 agro-morphological traits. Significant differences were observed among accessions for main stem length, main stem moist weight, main stem dry weight, 10-seeds weight on primary raceme, seed number on primary raceme, leaf area dry weight, female flower length, male flower length, secondary and tertiary raceme weight and oil percentage. A strongly positive correlation was observed between total seed weight on primary raceme as yield with seed number on primary raceme, female flower length, primary raceme length and main stem diameter. Path coefficient analysis indicated high direct effect of seed number on primary raceme (0.82) on seed yield. In addition, direct effect of primary raceme length on seed yield was negative (-0.13). Primary raceme length had the greatest indirect effect via seed number on seed yield (0.35)

Characterization and molecular diversity of Iranian rhizobia isolated from faba bean

The diversity and phylogeny of 30 rhizobia isolated from nodules of faba bean plants grown on 5 geographic regions located in the East Azerbaijan province of Iran were examined using rep-PCR fingerprinting, sequence analysis of 16S rRNA accompanied with nodC genes. Based on cluster analysis of rep-PCR fingerprints, faba bean rhizobia isolates were differentiated into five clusters (A to E) at 80% similarity level. The cophenetic correlation coefficient for the dendrogram obtained from the combined dataset of BOX and ERIC primers was 0.942. The percentage of polymorphic loci was 59.2% using the BOX-PCR primer and 67.3% using the ERIC-PCR primers. The data obtained by rep-PCR fingerprinting showed high apparent correlation between genetic diversity and geographical origin of the isolates. The phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA and nodC sequences showed that representative isolates were closely related to R. leguminosarum bv. viciae and R. fabae. To the best of our knowledge, this is first report of isolation and characterization of R. fabae from Iran

Identification of quantitative trait loci for relative water content and chlorophyll concentration traits in recombinant inbred lines of sunflower ([i]Helianthus annuus[/i] L.) under well-watered and water-stressed conditions

The goal of the present research work was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involved in the genetic variation of relative water content and chlorophyll concentration in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under well-watered and water-stressed conditions. 70 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) out of 123 from the cross PAC2 x RHA266 and their parental lines were evaluated in a rectangular 8 x 9 lattice design with two replications under well-watered and water-stressed conditions. High genetic variability and transgressive segregation was observed among RILs for evaluated traits in both water treatment conditions. QTLs were mapped using an updated high-density simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) linkage map. The map consisted of 210 SSR and 11 genes placed in 17 linkage groups. The total map length is 1,653.1 cM (centimorgan) with a mean density of 1 marker per 7.44 cM. Under well-watered state, 3 and 6 QTLs were identified for chlorophyll concentration and relative water content, respectively. In water-stressed condition 7 and 2 QTLs were identified. The percentage of phenotypic variance (R-2) explained by QTLs ranged from 0.39% to 52.48%. QTLs for chlorophyll concentration and relative water content on linkage group 10 and 16 were overlapped. Common QTLs for different traits in both water treatment conditions on linkage groups 10 seem to be more important as it gives a constitutive performance for the traits without being affected by water treatment