Genetic diversity of wild germplasm of “yerba mate” (Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil.) from Uruguay

Abstract

The "yerba mate" tree, Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil., is a crop native to subtropical South America, marketed for the elaboration of the highly popular "mate" beverage. The Uruguayan germplasm occupies the southernmost area of the species distribution range and carries adaptations to environments that considerably differ from the current production area. We characterized the genetic variability of the germplasm from this unexplored area by jointly analyzing individuals from the diversification center (ABP, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) with 19 nuclear and 11 plastidic microsatellite markers. For the Uruguayan germplasm, we registered 55 alleles (18 % private), and 80 genotypes (44 % exclusive), whereas 63 alleles (28.6 % private) and 81 genotypes (42 % exclusive) were recorded for individuals from ABP. Only two plastidic haplotypes were detected. Distance-based and multilocus genotype analyses showed that individuals from ABP intermingle and that the Uruguayan germplasm is differentiated in three gene-pools. Significant positive correlations between genetic and geographic distances were detected. Our results concur in that ABP individuals harbor greater genetic variation than those from the tail of the distribution, as to the number of alleles (1.15-fold), He (1.19-fold), Rs (1.39-fold), and the between-group genetic distances (1.16-fold). Also the shape of the genetic landscape interpolation analysis suggests that the genetic variation decays southward towards the Uruguayan territory. We showed that Uruguayan germplasm hosts a combination of nuclear alleles not present in the central region, constituting a valuable breeding resource. Future conservation efforts should concentrate in collecting numerous individuals of "yerba mate" per site to gather the existent variation.

Integral Phylogenomic Approach over Ilex L. Species from Southern South America

“…The sampled accessions of I. dumosa were: EEA-INTA-CA n° 222 (Misiones, Argentina), 55 (Paraná, Brazil), 227 (Alto Paraná, Paraguay), and CRV7 (Misiones, Argentina, provided by Dr. PA Sansberro, from IBONE-CONICET). All these samples were chosen to represent plastidic variation detected on a preliminary survey using heterologous microsatellites: two haplotypes in I. paraguariensis [ 43 ] and four in I. dumosa (J Cascales, UBA-FCEN, Argentina, unpub. res.).…”

“…Fresh leaves of I. aquifolium L. and I. latifolia Thunb., were processed with the DNeasy Plant Quick Extraction kit (QIAGEN Inc., Duesseldorf, Germany) following manufacturer’s instructions. PCR primers were designed as above or obtained from [ 50 , 51 ] ( Table S3 ), and reaction conditions were as described in Cascales et al [ 43 ]. PCR purifications were done with AccuPrep ® Gel purification kit (BIONEER, Daedeok-Gu, Daejeon 306-220, Korea).…”

“…As selected IGSs proved more variable than introns (average normalized ratios = 0.0049 and 0.0032, respectively), we focused on those regions and we obtained 80 sequences for additional species of Ilex, and downloaded other sequences from Genbank ( Table S2 ). PCR amplifications were carried out using conditions described in Cascales et al [ 43 ] and annealing temperatures of 50 or 55 °C; purification and sequencing steps were performed as outlined before. For those species with several sequences per region we generated consensuses in Bioedit [ 61 ].…”

Assessing the Genetic Diversity of Ilex guayusa Loes., a Medicinal Plant from the Ecuadorian Amazon

“…Several species of the Ilex genus, such as I. paraguariensis [14][15][16], I. chinensis Sims [17], I. integra Thunb. [18], and I. aquifolium L. [19], among others [20][21][22], have been widely studied in terms of their genetic diversity and phytochemical composition [23,24].…”

“…In order to understand which of these is the case of guayusa, in the present study we performed a preliminary assessment of the genetic diversity and population structure of 88 guayusa individuals from the Ecuadorian Amazon using 17 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers specific for I. guayusa. Having information of this species at the genetic level could contribute to establish conservation strategies and develop breeding programs [14] for the sustainable use of this agroforestry resource in a fragile and highly biodiverse region [25].…”