Phenomic characterization of Crotalaria germplasm for crop improvement

Abstract

Background Diversification of global food systems through exploration of traditional varieties and wild edible plant species is a focal mitigation strategy for food security worldwide. The present study determined the phenomic diversity of locally available, affordable and climate-resilient cultivated and wild Crotalaria species for breeding purposes. Methods Seed samples were collected from different administrative counties in Kenya spanning different climatic zones. Other seeds were provided by the Genetic Resources Research Institute of Kenya. A randomized complete block design with three replications was used for agro-morphological evaluation of the 83 accessions used in this study. Data on quantitative and qualitative traits was collected. Cluster analysis on R and R-studio was used to generate a dendrogram by the Euclidian genetic distance and dissimilarity indices while the non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) method was used to determine the spatial interrelationship between the accessions. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationships between qualitative and quantitative traits while the principal component analysis was used to discriminate the accessions. Results Three edible species (C. brevidens Benth., C. ochroleuca G.Don, C. trichotoma Bojer.) were found to be cultivated by Kenyan farmers and a significant variation (p < 0.0001) for all parameters under study was recorded. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering grouped the accessions into 8 major clusters. The NMDS ordination formed 15 and 6 groups based on counties and regions respectively. Conclusions This study forms the basis for exploring novel breeding strategies among cultivated species, between wild and cultivated Crotalaria species as well as determining molecular markers linked to phenomic traits.

Genetic diversity and population structure of wild and cultivated Crotalaria species based on genotyping-by-sequencing

“…Secondly, gene flow due to migration could have influenced population structure. In Kenya, communities living in the Western and Nyanza regions migrate with indigenous germplasm to urban areas, especially Nairobi [ 18 ]. This could be the reason why the Nyanza population was observed to be genetically closer to that of Nairobi and Western.…”

“…Samples were collected from five regions in Kenya with varying rainfall and temperatures, namely; Nairobi, Western, Nyanza, Eastern and Rift Valley. The five sampled regions fall into three climatic regions of agricultural importance in Kenya which are the temperate zone, the coastal strip and the hot and dry zones [ 18 ]. This brought together Crotalaria germplasm cordially provided by the Genetic Resources Research Institute of Kenya (samples with the prefix GBK) and farmer-held accessions totaling to 80 samples ( S1 Table ).…”

“…As yet, few studies have been done to ascertain the morphological and molecular variability in Crotalaria species. The studies done so far include those of [1,2,5,6,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The use of markers in some of these studies was minimal.…”

Searching for mechanisms behind meiotic abnormalities in Crotalaria spectabilis Roth

“…These species show economic value since they can be used for green fertilization in agriculture (Leal et al, 2005), for soil coverage and prevention of erosion (Choi et al, 2008), and for the control of nematodes (Nascimento et al, 2020). All these characteristics have led to the interest in the development of new varieties to better exploit the agriculture potential of these species (Rovaris et al, 2021;Muli et al, 2021).…”

Peanut Germplasm Evaluation for Agronomic Traits and Disease Resistance under a Two-Season Cropping System in Taiwan

“…Evaluation of germplasms can be conducted through phenotyping or genotyping. Phenotyping is a traditional method to classify germplasms into different groups based on morphological and agronomic traits [20,21]. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis are common analysis tools used to describe the pattern of variation in a germplasm population and to organize similar genotypes into a group.…”