Authors: Francisco Javier Herraiz Santiago Vilanova Isabel Andújar Daniel Torrent Mariola Plazas Pietro Gramazio Jaime Prohens
Publish Date: 2015/04/28
Volume: 206, Issue: 2, Pages: 301-318
Abstract
Availability of standardized morphological and molecular characterization data is essential for the efficient development of breeding programmes in emerging crops Pepino Solanum muricatum is an increasingly important vegetatively propagated vegetable crop for which concurrent data on morphological descriptors and molecular markers are not available We evaluated 58 morphological traits using a collection of 14 accessions of pepinos including local Andean varieties and modern cultivars and 8 of wild relatives using the IPGRI and COMAV descriptors lists coupled with 20 ESTSSRs from tomato High morphological diversity was found in both cultivated and wild accessions all morphological traits except three were variable Cultivated pepino and wild relatives were significantly different for 26 traits Also local varieties and modern cultivars of pepino were different from each other for 13 morphological traits and were clearly separated in a principal components analysis Fourteen of the 20 tomato ESTSSRs were polymorphic with an average number of alleles per locus of 407 and a polymorphic information content value of 04132 This revealed a high degree of transferability from tomato to pepino and wide molecular diversity in the collection Cultivated materials manifest high levels of observed heterozygosity suggesting that it is related to heterosis for yield associated with heterozygosis SSR data clearly differentiated cultivated and wild materials Furthermore for pepinos the modern varieties were genetically much less diverse than the traditional local varieties However both groups of cultivated material expressed a low degree of genetic differentiation A strong correlation r = 0673 between morphological and molecular distances was found Our results provide foundational information for programmes of germplasm conservation and that can be used to enhance breeding for this emerging crop
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