Phenotypic and Genetic Diversity Evaluation of Sengon (Falcataria moluccana (Miq.) Barneby & JW Grimes) from Solomon Provenance on Progeny Trial in Cirangsad Experimental Forest, West Java

Initial evaluation of phenotypic variability and genetic diversity was conducted on the progeny test of 2 years-old sengon from Solomon provenance, which derived from nine families of mother tree and were then planted in 4 blocks in the Cirangsad Experimental Forest. Phenotypic assessment on eight traits was conducted on 36 trees using a scoring system, while genetic diversity of 15 selected individuals which represented high and low-score phenotypic traits was analyzed using 5 selected RAPD primers. The result on phenotypic assessment showed that family 3 (57.25 points) has the highest average score of phenotypic quality and family 4 has the lowest average score (7.50 points). Furthermore, genetic analysis showed that the low-scoring sengon population had a greater mean genetic diversity (He = 0.2535) than the high-score population (He = 0.2345). The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed a significant genetic differences (p-value < 0.001) among high and low-score populations and the dendrogram of genetic distance revealed clustering of individuals having similar superior phenotypic against those having non-superior, indicating the selection based on phenotypes in this study had succeeded in pooling the good quantitative alleles in the selected population. This evaluation results can be used as a reference in determining the best families to produce superior sengon (from Solomon provenance) offspring in the future that have desired adaptability, productivity, and diversity.

Phenotypic and genetic diversity of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) in East Java, Indonesia

Amzeri A, Badami K, Pawana G, Alfiyan Syah M, Daryono BS. 2021. Phenotypic and genetic diversity of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) in East Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 5223-5230. The assembly of hybrid watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thumb.) varieties with superior characters is an effort to meet the needs of watermelon seeds in Indonesia and reduce dependence on imports of watermelon seeds. The morphological characterization of exploratory watermelon plants is needed to support the assembly of superior varieties because morphological characterization will reveal the characteristics of each watermelon tested. In addition, the genetic and phenotypic diversity coefficients, heritability, and correlation between characters are needed to support the assembling of the desired variety. This research aimed to determine morphological diversity, genetic and phenotypic diversity coefficients, heritability, and correlation among characters of watermelon from East Java, Indonesia. The research used a randomized complete block design with ten genotypes as treatment and three replications,. The observed morphological characters were quantitative and qualitative characters. The number of characters was 60 characters. Eight quantitative characters, i.e., flowering date, harvesting date, fruit length, fruit diameter, skin thickness, fruit total soluble solids, number of seeds, and fruit weight were used to calculate the genetic and phenotypic diversity coefficient, heritability, and correlation between characters. Quantitative character data were subjected to analysis of variance, followed with a Duncan Multiple Range Test (p<0.05). The results showed that (i) Grouping based on morphological characters produces dendrograms with similarity coefficients ranging from 0.58 to 0.86 or there was a morphological diversity of 0.14 to 0.42, (ii) The phenotypic diversity coefficient (PDC) was greater than the genotypic diversity coefficient (PDC) in all observed quantitative characters, (iii) The broad sense Heritability values ?? of the tested watermelon genotypes ranged from 0.33 to 0.99, (iv) Fruit weight was significantly and positively correlated with fruit diameter, skin thickness, and number of seeds, (v) G1, G2, and G6 were the genotypes that can be used as parents to assemble superior watermelon varieties.

Strain diversity of plant-associated Lactiplantibacillus plantarum

The intraspecific phenotypic and genetic diversity of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (formerly Lactobacillus plantarum) was examined for five strains isolated from fermented olives and eight strains from cactus fruit, fermented tomatoes, teff injera, wheat boza, and wheat sourdough starter sources. Carbohydrate utilization and stress tolerance characteristics showed that the olive isolates grew more robustly in galactose and raffinose, showed higher tolerance to 12% v/v EtOH, and exhibited a greater capacity to inhibit an olive spoilage strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae than L. plantarum from the other plant sources. Certain traits were variable between fermented olive isolates such as the capacity for biofilm formation and survival at pH 2 or 50 °C. By comparison, all L. plantarum from fruit sources grew better at a pH of 3.5 than the strains from fermented grains. Multi-locus sequence typing and genome sequencing indicated that strains from the same source type tended to be genetically related. Comparative genomics was unable to resolve strain differences, with the exception of the most phenotypically impaired and robust isolates. The findings show that L. plantarum is adapted for growth on specific plants or plant food types, but that intraspecific variation may be important for ecological fitness of L. plantarum within individual habitats.

Development of a core collection from Sri Lankan traditional rice (Oryza sativa) varieties for phenotypic and genetic diversity

Weerakoon SR, Somaratne S. 2021. Development of a core collection from Sri Lankan traditional rice (Oryza sativa) varieties for phenotypic and genetic diversity. Nusantara Bioscience 13: 61-67. A collection of over 2000 traditional rice varieties are conserved at Gene Bank, Plant Genetics Resource Center, Sri Lanka. Oryza sativa varieties grown in Sri Lanka from ancient times to the middle of the last century are known as traditional rice. These varieties show adaptability to biotic and abiotic stresses and, an important component of biodiversity of Sri Lanka. A detailed understanding of the diversity of traditional rice varieties is essential for effective utilization of rice genetic resources and identification of potential parents possessing valuable genetic traits for future crop improvement. Study objectives were phenotypic and molecular characterization of one-hundred traditional rice varieties and to identify a core collection for phenotypic and genetic diversity. Rice varieties were grown in a plant house following RCBD with 4 replicates and 5 plants per replicate. Thirty-two agro-morphological characters were observed/collected. Genomic DNA was extracted from 20-days-old seedlings. Thirty?three microsatellite (Simple Sequence Repeat-SSR) primer pairs were used to assay genetic variation and PCR products were subjected to fragment analysis by capillary electrophoresis. Descriptive statistics and basic inferential statistical analyses were performed to access variation of agro-morphological characters among rice varieties. Cluster analysis and Multidimensional scaling produced 07 groups which were further analyzed using Classification and Regression Analysis to extract the diagnostic agro-morphological features. Groups of rice varieties were characterized by lemma palea color, awn color at maturity, seedling height, and flag-leaf angle. Traditional varieties represent distant clusters on agro-morphological features. Molecular analyses revealed all 33 loci displayed polymorphism (66.7-96.9%) among 100 traditional rice varieties with a total of 387 alleles identified with an average of 11.72 alleles per variety. All varieties were genetically structured into fifteen well-separated groups. UPGMA analysis based on Jaccard's similarity separated varieties into 05 major clusters. Genetic diversity information is useful in the efficient use of Sri Lankan rice germplasm and managing in situ and ex situ germplasm collections in conserving traditional rice varieties.

Phenotypic and Genetic Diversity of Xanthomonas perforans Populations from Tomato in North Carolina

Bacterial spot caused by Xanthomonas spp. is one of the most devastating diseases of tomato in North Carolina (NC). In total, 290 strains of Xanthomonas spp. from tomato in NC collected over 2 years (2015 and 2016) were analyzed for phenotypic and genetic diversity. In vitro copper and streptomycin sensitivity assays revealed that >95% (n = 290) of the strains were copper tolerant in both years, whereas 25% (n = 127) and 46% (n = 163) were streptomycin tolerant in 2016 and 2015, respectively. Using BOX repetitive element PCR assay, fingerprint patterns showed four haplotypes (H1, H2, H3, and H4) among the strains analyzed. The multiplex real-time quantitative PCR on a subset of representative strains (n = 45) targeting the highly conserved hrcN gene identified Xanthomonas strains from tomato in NC that belonged to X. perforans. Race profiling of the representative strains (n = 45) on tomato and pepper differentials confirmed that ∼9 and 91% of strains are tomato races T3 and T4, respectively. Additionally, PCR assays and sequence alignments confirmed that the copL, copA, copB (copLAB copper tolerance gene cluster), and avrXv4 genes are present in the strains analyzed. Phylogenetic and comparative sequence analyses of six genomic regions (elongation factor G [fusA], glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase A [gapA], citrate synthase [gltA], gyrase subunit B [gyrB], ABC transporter sugar permease [lacF], and GTP binding protein [lepA]) suggested that 13 and 74% of X. perforans strains from NC were genetically similar to races T3 and T4 from Florida, respectively. Our results provide insights that bacterial spot management practices in tomato should focus on deploying resistance genes to combat emerging pathogenic races of X. perforans and overcome the challenges currently posed by intense use of copper-based bactericides.