Genetic Relationship and Diversity Analysis of Faba Bean (Vicia Faba L. var. Minor) Genetic Resources Using Morphological and Microsatellite Molecular Markers

Abstract

Assessment of genetic diversity is an essential component in germplasm characterization and utilization. Molecular markers serve as a valuable tool to assess the genetic variation and germplasm identification, which play a key role for faba (Vicia faba L.) bean breeding. In this study, we analyzed the genetic diversity of faba bean accessions based on simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and morphological traits. Forty-six faba bean accessions, originating from different countries and from the ICARDA breeding program, were evaluated by using 15 morphological and agronomic traits and 17 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci. Significant differences among accessions for the 15 morphological descriptors were observed. Analysis by SSR markers showed a high genetic diversity among the accessions: All SSRs showed polymorphism, and 101 alleles were revealed for all accessions. The number of alleles at each locus ranged from 2 to 10, with an average of 5.94 alleles per marker, and the polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.38 to 0.84 with a mean of 0.69. Expected heterozygosity (He), observed heterozygosity (Ho), unbiased expected heterozygosity (UHe), and Shannon's information index (I) showed existence of high genetic variation between accessions from different pedigree. Analyses of genetic distance of the accessions separated the accessions into two groups and seven and five subgroups according to morphological and SSR analysis, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the SSR markers showed that the first two principal components (PCs) explained a total of 43.90 % of the genetic variation and allowed to distinguish three groups of accessions. Regardless of the method of analysis, Tunisian cultivars are grouped together. For the rest of the accessions, the geographical origin did not seem to be the main factor for structuring the variability of the studied accessions. Elite accessions from the ICARDA faba bean program differed from others and clustered together. The results obtained suggested that the faba bean microsatellite markers can be used to efficiently distinguish faba bean genotypes and to estimate their genetic diversity.

Genetic variability in Tunisian populations of faba bean (Vicia faba L. var. major) assessed by morphological and SSR markers

“…Indeed, molecular markers are increasingly used for the detection of differences at the DNA level among and within crop populations (Hoxha et al 2004). Although sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) (Hou et al 2015) and molecular markers such as ISSR (SalazarLaureles et al 2015) and SSR have been widely used to assess genetic diversity in faba bean (Alghamdi et al 2012;Suresh et al 2013;Abid et al 2015), the information on the genetic variability and relationship among Tunisian germplasms is limited.…”

Evaluation of the genetic variability of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) genotypes using agronomic traits and molecular markers

“…The evaluation of genetic variability among faba bean landraces using agro-morphological and molecular markers revealed that sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers are used to determine the genetic variability among genotypes (Ammar et al 2015;Backouchi et al 2015;Abid et al 2015;Rebaa et al 2017;Alemu et al 2018). AFLP markers and combined SRAP are considered to be remarkably beneficial for the evaluation of genetic variability at the molecular level.…”

“…They demonstrate high discrimination power (DP), differentiating the faba bean genotypes with high effectiveness and accuracy levels. It has been reported that 17 SSRs and 15 morphological traits could be used to evaluate the genetic variation among faba bean genotypes originating from different countries, and they were included in the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) breeding program (Ammar et al 2015;Abid et al 2015). Significant differences among the genotypes of the 15 morphological descriptors were identified.…”

Identification of Magnolia wufengensis (Magnoliaceae) cultivars using phenotypic traits, SSR and SRAP markers: insights into breeding and conservation

“…Furthermore, these traits will eventually form the basic classification reference for cultivar screening. Additionally, studying morphological traits of different cultivars would also permit the identification of eminent phenotypes with stable inheritance for genetic functional research (Abid et al, 2015). Based on a study that investigated how flower color was affected by the structure of flower petals, a theoretical basis for safflower formation and origin was sought (He et al, 2010).…”