Genetic variability and relationships among Salvia ecotypes/species revealed by TRAP-CoRAP markers

In this study, target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) and conserved region amplification polymorphism (CoRAP) markers were used for genetic diversity and relationship analysis of 25 Salvia ecotypes/species. Twelve TRAP and CoRAP primer combinations (four arbitrary primers and three fixed primers from Salvia miltiorrhiza expressed sequence tag sequences) amplified 180 loci, of which all were polymorphic. The obtained high average PIC and MI values revealed high capacity of TRAP and CoRAP primers to detect polymorphic loci among Salvia species. TRAPs and CoRAPs had similar efficiency in detecting polymorphisms with excellent ability to differentiate the closely related Salvia ecotypes. Based on both TRAP and CoRAP data, tetraploid Salvia virgata (2n = 4x = 32) showed the highest values for Na (1.17, 1.29), Ne (1.29, 1.35), Shannon index (0.26, 0.32) and heterozygosity (0.172, 0.212) in all 11 studied species. The Nei’s genetic distances with TRAPs and CoRAPs ranged from 0.23 to 0.69 and 0.19 to 0.64, respectively. The tree pattern based on combined CoRAP + TRAP data with the neighbour joining method clustered 25 Salvia species/ecotypes into five major groups that showed good alignment with the population structure analysis results. In both TRAPs and CoRAPs data analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), the estimated variance within Salvia species was greater than that among Salvia species

Unraveling salinity stress responses in ancestral and neglected wheat species at early growth stage: A baseline for utilization in future wheat improvement programs

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Screening wheat germplasm for seedling root architectural traits under contrasting water regimes: potential sources of variability for drought adaptation

<p>In this study, we selected 180 accessions from different wild relatives of wheat (<i>Aegilops</i>–<i>Triticum</i> species) and tested them in the presence of a tolerant and a sensitive control variety under well-watered and drought-stressed conditions. The results of analysis of variance for dry masses and all measured root traits showed that water regimes, accession and species main effects were highly significant. Drought stress significantly declined shoot dry mass (59.42%), root length (37.85%) and the total number of branch roots (36.25%), but increased the root-to-shoot ratio (75.00%), specific root length (64.19%) and root tissue density (29.46%). Principal component analysis for 182 individuals and 12 species groups identified two components that explained 75.67 and 82.39% of the total variation in dry mass and root traits under drought-stressed conditions, respectively. Taking together, our results identified 12 accessions with superior tolerance to drought stress. Remarkably, four species of wild relatives – <i>Ae. cylindrica</i> (DC genome), <i>Ae. neglecta</i> (UM genome), <i>Ae. speltoides</i> (B genome) and <i>Ae. tauschii</i> (D genome) – responded well to drought stress. The potential of these species could be used for molecular analysis such as marker assisted selection and gene mapping, ultimately aimed at breeding for root traits with improved adaptation to drought environments.</p