Multi-Level Characterization of Eggplant Accessions from Greek Islands and the Mainland Contributes to the Enhancement and Conservation of this Germplasm and Reveals a Large Diversity and Signatures of Differentiation between both Origins

Abstract

Crop landraces are found in many inhabited islands of Greece. Due to the particularity of environment and isolation from the mainland, Greek islands represent a natural laboratory for comparing the diversity of landraces from the islands with those of the Greek mainland. A collection of 36 Greek eggplant landraces and traditional cultivars from the mainland and the islands has been phenotypically and genetically characterized using 22 morphological descriptors and 5 SSR markers. The mineral composition (K, Mg, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn) of fruits was also determined. The objectives of this study include the multi-level characterization of eggplant local landraces and the comparison of diversity among accessions from the Greek mainland and the islands. Characterization of eggplant landraces will contribute to the enhancement and prevention of genetic erosion in this local group and will provide a resource for future investigation and breeding. PCA analysis of morphological traits explained 45.4% of the total variance revealing the formation of two clusters, one with most of the island accessions, and another with most of the mainland ones. The SSR markers used exhibited high average values for the number of alleles/locus (4.6), expected heterozygosity (0.60) and PIC (0.55), while the observed heterozygosity was low (0.13). Both STRUCTURE and PCoA analyses based on SSR data revealed two genetic clusters, one made up mainly by the mainland accessions, while the other one was mainly made up by the island accessions. Although there was considerable variation among the landraces for the concentration of minerals studied, only average Mg concentration was significantly different between mainland and island accessions. Based on our data, the Greek eggplant landraces present considerable morphological and genetic diversity with some differentiation signatures between the island and the mainland accessions. Our results have

Genetic diversity of exotic and local eggplants (Solanum spp.) cultivated in Côte d’Ivoire based on ISSR markers

“…In the present study, nine exotic and local eggplants commonly cultivated and marketed in Côte d'Ivoire were examined for diversity analysis using ISSR markers. Assessment of genetic diversity within germplasm is of interest for practical applications such as the conservation of genetic resources and for breeding purposes (Gramazio et al 2019). Information on diversity can be generated through DNA fingerprinting approaches capable to reveal large number of loci and polymorphisms among genotypes (Mangal et al 2016).…”

“…The high levels of polymorphism found among the eggplants studied are consistent with the important morphological differences presented by their fruits in terms of shape, size, and color. Morphological variations of fruits are among the most notable distinguishing features of eggplants and they are the result of genes involved in adaptive evolution (Tümbilen et al 2011;Cakir et al 2017;Gramazio et al 2019).…”

Analysis of Crop Genetic and Germplasm Diversity

“…Based on the available data, the Greek eggplant landraces present considerable morphological and genetic diversity with some differentiation signatures between the island and the mainland accessions. These results have implications for the conservation of Greek landraces and suggest that Greece might be considered as part of a secondary center of diversity for eggplant in the Mediterranean basin [7]. Six distinct groups of these landraces and the joint analysis presented an entanglement rate of 0.58, offering evidence for the divergence of accessions between the groups of both dendrograms.…”

“…Japonica) [3,4]), and Cynodon [5]. Some horticultural crops such as eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) [6,7] and Capsicum (several species) [8,9] were studied, presented in this volume, with regard to morphological, sensorial, and chemical characterization and adaptation to different conditions. With regard to legume crops, the diversity of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh) was highlighted [10].…”

Exploring morpho-physiological profiles of a collection of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) germplasm using multivariate statistics

“…Landraces from different origins were scattered across the whole variation spectrum of PC1 and PC2. Morphological and genetic characterization of eggplant germplasm originated from Greece revealed that the accessions from mainland were differentiated from those from islands, underlying the importance of the environment, the geographic location and the agro-ecological conditions (Gramazio et al ., 2019). No similar correlations were identified in this study, probably due to the small number of landraces originated from the mainland.…”