Genetic diversity of blackberry (Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson) is essential for efficient breeding and improvement of its pomological traits and yield. In this research, simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were used to determine the genetic diversity of 90 blackberry accessions collected from six different counties in Kenya. From 11 SSR markers used to genotype the blackberry accessions, a total of 127 alleles were generated. The average number of alleles (A) per locus was 4.00 while the expected heterozygosity (HE) of the SSR loci varied between 0.34 and 0.50, with a mean of 0.467. Polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.357 to 0.753 with a mean of 0.520. HE of the blackberry accessions were higher than the observed heterozygosities (HO), having 0.75 and 0.64, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed 95% variability within accessions and 5% (P<0.01) among accessions. Cluster analysis using the Jaccard's similarity coefficient grouped the accessions into three classes: I, II and III, consisting of 31, 52 and 7 accessions, respectively. The clustering was random and did not group the accessions according to their geographical origin, indicating that accessions found in Kenya are closely related. This study detected considerable levels of genetic diversity within the analyzed accessions, which could be exploited in a blackberry breeding program.
The variation of morphological and physiological traits of blackberry (Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson) is vital for successful breeding of the fruit crop. The objective of this study was to characterize blackberry accessions in-situ using morphological descriptors in Kenya. Each blackberry accession was nested within its county of collection. A phylogenetic tree was then constructed using the Gower's coefficient which clustered the accessions into two classes; I and II consisting of 1 and 89 accessions, respectively. The clustering of accessions did not show an association between the origin of collection and the accessions. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed ten axes of which seven had a cumulative variation of 96.30% with the first two axes having a discriminatory variance of 52.71%. This suggests that variables identified in this study could be used to differentiate blackberry accessions morphologically. This study demonstrated that the number of internodes per average growing shoots, thorniness of the plant and length of internode were associated with the first axis with Eigenvalue of 27.79%. Plant thorniness was also associated with the second axis with Eigenvalue of 24.92%. These results suggest that there exists qualitative and quantitative variation among blackberry accessions in Kenya that can be utilized in breeding.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.