Genetic divergence in basil cultivars and hybrids

Abstract

Basil is an aromatic herb that stands out for its economic importance. It is consumed in natura and used to obtain essential oil. The cultivation of this species in several regions of the world has allowed variations by natural crosses and euploidy, leading to the wide genetic variability found nowadays. Considering the importance of this species, we aimed to analyze the genetic diversity of 27 basil genotypes using ISSR molecular markers. Fourteen primers were employed for DNA amplification, resulting in 86% polymorphism. Based on the Jaccard’s dissimilarity index, the highest index (0.80) was observed between the individuals BAS001 and BAS012, while the lowest index (0.18) was detected between the genotypes BAS014 and BAS015. The genetic similarity among individuals was calculated, forming four distinct clusters. Most individuals (40.7%) were allocated in cluster I. The polymorphic information content (PIC) (0.89) indicated considerable levels of genetic diversity among genotypes. In this sense, the ISSR markers were efficient in the detection of polymorphisms between the accessions, suggesting the genetic variability of the collection. This result demonstrates the importance of the use of molecular markers and the advantages that this information provides to the breeding of the species.

Detection of genetic variation among five basil species by using ISSR, SCOT and SRAP markers

“…The ISSR marker system is useful for differentiating Ocimum species and in examining their genetic diversity in comparison to SCoT and SRAP markers. The efficacy of the ISSR was demonstrated in the present study and in several other studies on genetic diversity, for example in which species of the genus Ocimum were analyzed (Aghaei et al, 2012;Patel et al, 2015, Kumar et al, 2016Alves et al, 2019;and Gupta et al, 2021), and other medicinal and aromatic species e.g., Croton tetradenius (Almeida- Pereira et al, 2016).…”

“…ISSR markers also have the ability to amplify DNA fragments that are present at an amplifiable distance between two identical microsatellite repeat regions orientated in opposite direction (Reddy et al 2002). High polymorphism of ISSR was also reported in many previous studies, as in the case of Mentha arvensis, Ocimum (Malav et al 2015;Dhawan et al, 2016;Chaturvedi et al 2018;Alves et al 2019;Gupta et al 2021). Previous studies have also recommended that SCoT markers work better performance than other molecular marker systems in other plants (Luo et al, 2011).…”