Conserving maize in gene banks: Changes in genetic diversity revealed by morphological and SSR markers

Abstract

In the second half of 20 th century the awareness of importance of landraces for the future, led to organized collecting missions for numerous plant species. A total of 2217 maize (Zea mays L.) landraces, collected in the former Yugoslavia, are stored at Maize Research Institute (MRIZP) gene bank. During 2014, new collecting missions were organized in the eastern and western parts of Macedonia. According to collecting site and kernel type, 14 samples from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food, R. Macedonia were chosen for the comparison and identification of possible duplicates, through coupling with the 16 MRIZP gene bank accessions from the same area and kernel characteristics. Phenotypic characterization was done for 21 traits according to International Board for Plant Genetic Resources descriptors for maize. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) identifies five PCs with Eigenvalue > 1, explaining 80% of the total phenotypic variation. The most discriminative traits with the strongest positive associations were tasseling and silking dates, plant height, leaf length and ear length. Compared to the exsitu populations, the number of alleles and the number of specific alleles, showed a significant decrease in the in situ populations. Twelve unique alleles were detected in samples from MRIZP gene bank, and only four were found in new Macedonian samples. Cluster analysis of morphological and molecular markers distinguished groups of maize accessions with distinctive morphological traits and genetic profiles that will be useful for conservation, and management of gene bank collection, as well as for possible utilization in breeding.

Genetic analysis of prolificacy in “Sikkim Primitive”—A prolific maize (Zea mays) landrace of North‐Eastern Himalaya

“…Landraces possess extraordinary genetic diversity, much of which has not been incorporated into improved varieties due to the “bottleneck” effects created by artificial selection targeted towards higher productivity (Tanksley & McCouch, ). Genetic erosion by cultivation of hybrids and habitat destruction by modern agriculture has increased the importance of landrace as a source of novel genetic variability (Andjelkovic et al, ; Prasanna, , ). Landraces especially from North‐Eastern Himalayan region assumes great significance as a source of prolificacy in maize (Sharma et al, ; Singode & Prasanna, ).…”

“…Landraces possess extraordinary genetic diversity, much of which has not been incorporated into improved varieties due to the "bottleneck" effects created by artificial selection targeted towards higher productivity (Tanksley & McCouch, 1997 has increased the importance of landrace as a source of novel genetic variability (Andjelkovic et al, 2018;Prasanna, 2010Prasanna, , 2012.…”

Influence of Cathodic Water Invigoration on the Emergence and Subsequent Growth of Controlled Deteriorated Pea and Pumpkin Seeds

“…The delay in emergence may be linked to reduction in seed vigour and possibly also to the induction of secondary dormancy [40,41]. Delays in emergence as a result of loss of seed vigour have been reported in many plants including Phaseolus vulgaris L. [3], Glycine max [17] and Zea mays [41]. Generally, seed priming with cathodic water improved the emergence parameters in both species, with most of the improvements being statistically significant (Table 1).…”

“…Orthodox seeds can be effectively conserved in seeds banks but, even during careful storage, can eventually deteriorate in vigour and viability [1,2]. The deterioration of seeds in gene banks is of global concern, as it affects the long-term conservation of genetic diversity of both wild and agricultural plants [3,4] essential for future breeding programs. In the future, it will be necessary to produce varieties that perform well under future climate change scenarios, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where the effects of climate change are likely to be severe [5,6].…”

Genetic variations in some Egyptian Zea mexicana genotypes based on RAPD and AFLP markers

“…Molecular markers are considered the ideal choice to be used in plant genetic diversity studies because of their unambiguous genetic resource's characterization at the DNA level (Barcaccia et al, 2016). Also, they are stable and detectable in all plant tissues at different developmental stages or under different environmental conditions (Violeta et al, 2018). Because of the simplicity of the random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs), it has been extensively used to differentiate and detect differences among genotypes (Suten et al, 2013 andTomkowiak, et al, 2020).…”