Impact of geography on adaptation of Phyllanthus amarus seeds

Abstract

The present study was aimed to evaluate adaptive mechanism in terms of seed characters of collected from ten different locations of Tamil Nadu, India. The adaptive variations among the collected populations were assessed based on the sink and float percentages of the seeds in water, the percentage of seed germination, total protein, carbohydrates and their seedling's growth ability such as shoot and root lengths. From this, we observed that the population had a significantly higher germination percentage of sinking seeds that were attributed to its relatively higher carbohydrate and protein contents than the floating seeds. A comparison of the seed population by cluster analysis and principal coordinate analysis showed that the Chennai population constituted a single clade that was very distinct from the other nine populations, which were further grouped into two sub-clusters. They exhibited a trend consistent with their geographical proximity. Standardised Mantel's tests had revealed that the adaptive diversity of the . population was significantly affected by the geographic distance ( = 0.78, = 2.68,> 0.001), altitude ( = 0.35, = 21.53,> 0.05), minimum temperature ( = 0.43, = 1.49,> 0.01) and maximum temperature ( = 0.49, = 1.67,> 0.001). Seed's characteristics and geographical conditions were correlated along with 19 bioclimatic variables. In dry season, the seedling's rooting ability showed positive correlation, while its protein content exhibited a negative correlation. It is clearly evident from this study that the geographical variables significantly influence the adaptive ability of the ..

Germinating potential of Phyllanthus amarus seeds: evaluation of biochemical parameters

“…A significantly higher percentage of germination can be related to the presence of a higher total protein content in the sink seeds ( Fig. 5) due to the presence of many active enzymes compared to float seeds which has lower level of protein in this species [11].…”

“…For the germinability test, 1 g of visibly healthy seeds (i.e. free of microbial colonisation, decay and herbivore damage) were separated into sink and float seeds by a method proposed by Edson et al [32] and assessed using a method described by Karthik et al [11]. A seed was considered as germinated when there was an emergence of the radicle, and the observation of seed germination was recorded daily.…”

“…However, the extent of seed viability is influenced by various environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity, salinity, light and soil moisture. [11]. Typically, the fresh seeds of P. amarus show less than 50% germination and the viability is found to decrease significantly with storage time [17].…”

“…Recently, researchers recognised the value of conserving the medicinal plant, but they are facing several challenges that hampered their efforts [10]. As the wildgrown P. amarus has endured adaptive variation under different climate regimes, [11] germinability potential of seeds and its biochemical nutrients constituents under natural habitats remains a threatening reality for in situ conservation of the species.…”

Diversity Profiling of Seed Associated Endophytic Microbiome in Important Species of Caricaceae Family

“…All the seed samples were collected from ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hessaraghatta lake post, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (13.1348 • N, 77.4960 • E), except for the seeds of V. cundinamarcensis that were collected from Government Botanical Garden, Ooty, Tamil Nadu, India (11.4189 • N, 76.7114 • E). The sites of collection are shown on the map India (Springer copyrights, [42]) using raster package in R studio [43] for geography of the collection sites (Figure S1).…”