Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an economically important crop that is cultivated and consumed worldwide. Spinach is interfertile with the wild species S. tetrandra Steven ex M. Bieb. and S. turkestanica Iljin that therefore are presumed to include the most likely crop ancestor. Here we studied variation in 60 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) previously identified in S. oleracea to address the

Common wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.) is a valuable germplasm resource for rice genetic improvement. However, it is endangered due to habitat loss. Assessment of its genetic diversity is essential for germplasm characterization, utilization, and conservation. In the present study, we developed a 79,422-single-nucleotide polymorphism genome-wide array by specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing

Solena amplexicaullis (Lam.) Gandhi, is a multipurpose minor cucurbit with occasional occurrence in biodiversity hotspots of Asian subcontinent and most of the plant parts are used for traditional medicine. Farmers are involved in cultivation and conservation of this species based on ethno botanical and traditional knowledge, completely unaware of its nutritional attributes and economic potential.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the most important bulbous vegetable used in global kitchen. Although it has various important traits but among them the high total soluble solid content (HTSS) of white onion is highly preferred by the industries for processing purpose. Looking into the broader use of the white onion; we utilized a total of 23 polymorphic simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and intron length

Garden pea is an important off-season vegetable in the hills of North Western Himalayas that provides high remuneration to growers. Lack of high yielding wider adaptive varieties restricts its productivity. To identify high yielding stable genotypes across environments, 48 lines were evaluated in Alpha Lattice design over seven diverse environments spreading in five locations from sub-tropical to dry

Common bean is the most important legume crop for human consumption around the world. For this reason, bean breeders are challenged with increasing bean production while facing new problems like climate change. Guatemalan climbing beans have been suggested to represent a previously undefined race in the Middle American gene pool that may represent an untapped source of alleles for bean improvement

Although maize being the second most important staple crop of Nepal after rice in term of area and production, its productivity is very low as compared to other develop nation. Unavailability of location specific maize hybrids might be one of the major causes of low productivity. Hybrid yields 20–30% more than open pollinated variety. National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, has registered and

Kola (Cola nitida (Vent.) Schott & Endl.) is a tree crop of great economic and socio-cultural importance. Available genetic resources of kola are increasingly vulnerable to genetic erosion due to decreased population sizes resulting from land use changes and cutting of trees for timber and firewood production. There is therefore an urgent need to conserve genetic resources of kola in Ghana. The objective

Wild potatoes (Solanum sp.) are important reservoirs of desirable genes for potato breeding. Most of them are diploid and obligate outcrossers, with both sexual and asexual reproduction. Samples of natural populations are ex situ conserved as accessions in germplasm banks for basic and applied ends, and are regenerated when seed number, seed viability or both decrease. The possible action of within

Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. & G. Don) Cif. is one of the six subspecies important for domestication of olive described as having valuable breeding traits. It is distributed from South Africa to the Middle East and the Mediterranean region to China mainly at mid to high altitudes with adequate precipitation. The currently rather fragmented Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata populations likely

Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are important reservoirs of adaptive traits for crop breeding programmes. Both ex situ and in situ conservation approaches should be deployed to ensure CWR availability for use. This paper aims to (a) create a regional database of occurrence records for the 441 priority CWRs in the Fertile Crescent, (b) identify CWR-rich areas in the Fertile Crescent, (c) recommend locations

The conservation and utilization of germplasm is contingent on its proper characterization at morphological or molecular levels. The present study aimed to elucidate the population sub-structure of 470 temperate rice germplasm collections of the Kashmir Valley. Analysis was carried out using KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR) assay on 213 genomic loci. Of these, a restricted set of 114 KASP loci

Licorice has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2000 years. Chalcone isomerase (CHI) is the second rate-limiting enzyme involved in the biosynthetic pathway of flavonoids in licorice. The purpose of this study is to analyze the CHI gene polymorphism and identify CHI haplotypes associated with high/low flavonoid contents. Five Glycyrrhiza uralensis samples with the high flavonoids

The development of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier) genotypes, which have good taste, size and firmness, is among the most important and prioritized issues of today. We aimed to develop new strawberry cultivars having standards of priority issues for strawberry. Eight prominent strawberry genotypes were obtained from the cross of domestic strawberry cultivars (‘Sevgi’, ‘Kaşka’, and

Artificial group selection has long been proposed as a useful method for crop breeding, yet the possibility that group selection occurs naturally in agroecosystems has not been explored. Due to natural and/or artificial selection, the fitness of an individual can depend on both the individual’s traits, the traits of neighboring individuals, and on group’s emergent traits (as density). This process

The crab apple is the most widespread wild relative of the apple tree in Europe. Although it is more extended in the northern regions, in Spain this species is mainly located on mountainous areas. Archaeobotanical records show that human beings have used Malus sylvestris since ancient times. After an exhaustive search in almost 200 ethnobotanical and ethnographical works, a compilation of the traditional

Plant genetic resources are a link between agriculture, environment and trade, so their conservation requires cooperation from different sectors. The existing diversity in genetic resources is the foundation in breeding for new challenges or new markets in the future. The number of crop genetic resources in Serbia is obscure because there is no national inventory. It is thought that there are about

Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich. is a tropical tuberous legume which is fascinating for multiple uses in India. It is a climate-resilient legume and reported as a source of bruchid resistance, abiotic stresses tolerance and proteinaceous tubers. Meagre information is available for storage roots (tubers) of V. vexillata in general in the Indian scenario. In the present study, the evaluation of morphological

Lepidium sativum L. is a fast-growing and underutilized medicinal plant. The Indian system of medicinal and health recognized this plant as a source of several medicinal and nutraceutical molecules. The 94 accessions collected from different eco-geographical region of India were evaluated for two consecutive years to assess the level of genetic variability. The ANOVA revealed considerable variability

Drought adversely affects crop growth, development and yield. This study assessed genetic variation in a panel of wheat lines to water deficit and identified the QTLs governing this relationship via GWAS. A panel of 290 lines of the Wheat Association Mapping Initiative (WAMI) population were evaluated under well-irrigated and drought-stressed conditions. Stress tolerance indices were calculated to

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the fourth largest cereal crop in the world with extensive adaptability in diverse environments. There is increasing evidence that epigenetics contributes to plant evolution and adaptation. However, epigenetic variation in barley and their correlations with genetic variation remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated epigenetic and genetic diversity in 48

A new potential variety of melon (Cucumis melo L.; family Cucurbitaceae) is described here from Rajasthan, North western India. Detailed description, illustration and photo plate are provided to facilitate identification of this new variety.

Pinus cembra L. is a coniferous European mountain range tree rich in oleoresins and essential oils. Twig tips with needles are the most common tree parts used to obtain essential oils. As the whole tree contains volatiles, the essential oil composition from different parts was studied, including twig tips with needles from the bottom, the top and the cone bearing branches, cones, twigs without needles

Ramie (Boehmeria nivea L.) is one of the main fiber crops in China, integrated with textile, forage, building materials and soil conservation. Germplasm resources of ramie in China is rich, accordingly it is of great significance to study the diversity of phenotypic characters. UAV near-air remote sensing can grasp farmland information in real time and play an increasingly important role in the collection

Potato onions (Allium cepa var aggregatum G. Don) are multiplying or aggregating onions, very similar to shallots and have been historically cultivated throughout Europe. Currently in Northern Europe they are maintained in home gardens and ex situ field collections. Potato onions are primarily vegetatively propagated, however in Estonia, near Lake Peipsi, this species has been propagated by seed since

Pongamia pinnata, is an important biodiesel plant in India. The seed is an economic part of the plant used for extraction of biodiesel. The reproductive biology of P. pinnata is important for determining barriers in setting pods. The study has been carried out at Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Jhansi, India, during 2017–2019. The observations were made on the floral biology and pollinator

New banana plantations of Turkey are mostly established with meristem culture-propagated plants because starting materials greatly influence yield and quality in these plantations. This study was conducted to select superior banana clones from Grand Nain, Dwarf Cavendish and Azman cultivars grown in open fields and greenhouses in Turkey. The study also aimed to determine selection efficiency breeding

Four spontaneous diploid taxa (2n = 2x = 16 chromosomes) of the genus Hedysarum L. were studied for the first time using molecular cytogenetic approach and a tetraploid one as an additional comparative control. This study follows the work undertaken on this genus as part of the preservation and valorization of fodder and pastoral phytogenetic resources in Algeria. Fluorescent in situ hybridization

Maize (Zea mays spp. mays L.) is the major domesticated cereal of the Americas and is of great relevance for global food security. For a long time, Amazonia represented an empty space in the racial distribution maps of this species, due to the lack of collections and the idea that locally developed races became extinct during European colonization. However, a native race had been described in Brazilian

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is a multi-purpose legume serving millions of farmers and their value chain actors globally. Use of old poor-performing cultivars contributes to low yields (< 1 t/ha) of groundnut in sub-Saharan Africa including Tanzania. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent of genetic variation among diverse groundnut collections using phenotypic traits and simple

Indigenous leafy vegetables such as the spider plant (Cleome gynandra L.) can play an important role in alleviating malnutrition and providing a source of income to smallholder growers. In South Africa, the spider plant is often harvested from the wild. There is lack of information regarding the perceptions of end-users about this indigenous leafy vegetable in many regions of South Africa. Therefore

The chief subject of this brief overview is a vetch species, once distinguished as Vicia calcarata Desf. and currently regarded as V. monantha Retz. subsp. triflora (Ten.) B. L. Burtt & P. Lewis, but we prefer to distinguish this taxon at species level as Vicia calcarata. It is a volunteer plant occurring regularly on ruderal sites in the local floras of the coastal and maritime areas of the Mediterranean

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) enriched libraries for five groups of tropical perennial plants with edible fruits and shoots were prepared and sequenced in a GS-FLX Roche 454: sapodilla (Manilkara zapota (L.) P. Royen), lychee (Litchi chinensis Sonn.), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana Linn. and G. cochinchinensis (Lour.) Choisy), rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.), and bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris Schrad.

Oryza meyeriana (Zoll. & Moritzi) Baill. is a wild relative of cultivated rice. O. meyeriana is reported to exhibit high resistance or immunity to bacterial blight (BB), a disease caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae (Xoo). To fully understand the BB resistance of O. meyeriana across multiple distribution sites in Yunnan, China, 87 accessions of 29 O. meyeriana populations were inoculated by artificial

High oleic peanuts and derived food products offer longer shelf life benefits to the food processing industry in addition to multiple health benefits to the consumers. The two mutant alleles, ahFAD2A and ahFAD2B control composition of oleic, linoleic and palmitic acid content in peanut. A total of 563 peanut pre-breeding lines were tested for the presence ahFAD2A and ahFAD2B mutant alleles using allele

Data on literature about archaeological remains of cultivated plants had been systematically compiled and reported in a series of articles reaching from 1965 to 2000. Here we report about literature which appeared from 1826 (first publications found on this topic) to 1964. The complete citations of these publications (1026 items) can be found in an electronic appendix.

This study was conducted to determine diversity and uses of Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman varieties in Angacha district, Southern Ethiopia. Semi-structured interview and group discussion were used to collect data from 75 homegardens. Transect walk with key informants was used to collect data on diversity and uses of varieties. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Diversity among enset

Crop breeders are frequently confronted with a challenge of shortlisting a few most likely to be productive early segregating generations in terms of high frequency of superior recombinant inbred lines from among a large number of segregating generations which are normally being developed to save substantial resources. The breeding potential of five F2 populations derived from parents differing for

Variability studies on 92 wild apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) genotypes growing in Himachal Pradesh, India were carried out during 2015–2017. The aim was to determine genetic relatedness amongst the genotypes and to identify characters influencing yield for effective genetic improvement in apricot. All the genotypes exhibited a great deal of variation for most of the characters studied and fell into

Capsicum L. is a genus of vegetables with a high global demand due to the pungency of its fruits. The species C. annuum L., C. frutescens L. and C. chinense Jacq. are the most cultivated and are closely related, belonging a group known as the annuum complex. Within these species, there are varieties with great morphological diversity that are widely exploited commercially. In this study, morphological

Glossonema varians is a medicinally important, rare, endemic and edible plant species of Thar Desert. Glossonema varians is a perennial herb and well adapted to the arid and semi arid region of the Indian Desert. The plant is used as famine food at the time of food scarcity and local people also used it as fodder. The plant is under rare category due to its large scale harvesting from wild as it is

Swertia mussotii Franch. has been widely used in Tibetan folk medicine as an important drug ingredient for the treatment of hepatitis and hepatobiliary disease and for homeopathic purposes. But the lacking natural resources of S. mussotii is becoming more obvious with increasing market demands. The main objective of this work was to examine genetic differentiation among S. mussotii populations from

The present work considered collecting and characterizing the genetic diversity of sweet potato [Ipomoea batata (L.) Lam.] in Ecuador through morphological and molecular descriptors (SSRs). Germplasm collections were made to assemble a national sweet potato collection for Ecuador. Characterization of the genetic diversity of this species was done through 34 morphological descriptors (24 qualitative

Fruits are the nature’s gift to mankind, they are not only delicious and refreshing, but also nutritionally rich and supplementing the daily diet of the people. This paper reviews the ethnobotanical knowledge on wild edible fruits traditionally used by the tribal and rural peoples of the Western Ghats, India. There are 237 wild fruiting plants belonging to 136 genera, comes under 65 families used by

With the increasing acidification of soil, aluminum (Al) toxicity has become one of the most important stress factors affecting seed germination quality and crop yield. To investigate the Al tolerance on seed germination, genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) of 19,949 SNPs with genome-wide coverage was used to identify the candidate genes, which were potentially related to germinate traits of rapeseed

Most recent studies on Lilium species have been descriptive observations based on FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) analyses or phylogenetic studies focusing on only one section without taking the evolutionary framework of Lilium into account. To better understand the taxonomic status, evolution, and karyotype diversity of the genus Lilium, we conducted FISH mapping using 35S rDNA sequences

Curcuma zanthorrhiza Roxb. produces significant quantity of curcumin and essential oil in its rhizomes, hence can be used as an alternate source of curcumin. The differential expression of curcumin synthase (CURS) genes and subsequent curcumin production varied at the different developmental stages of the plant. The present study focused on the relative quantification of putative CURS (CURS1, CURS2

The global population depends on fairly a small number of crops including wheat, rice and maize for food and nutrition, leaving a wealth of genetic resources neglected. Owing to ever increasing demands of the growing world, food production must be increased but research evidences suggests that climate change has adversely affected crop yields, thereby impacting whole agriculture. Exploring the potential

Gametophytic self-incompatibility, one of the key characters for production of seedless citrus, is known in pummelo [Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr.], mandarin (C. reticulata Blanco) and their hybrid cultivars. The allelic variation in Citrus was reported for the self-incompatibility gene (S). However, S allele frequencies and S genotypes of self-incompatible and semi-self-incompatible Citrus cultivars

The aims of this research were to generate information on agro-morphological variability among 42 bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia L.) landraces collected from major growing areas of North West of Iran. The landraces were grown according to rectangular lattice design in the field across 2 years (2018 and 2019) in the Research Farm at Vali-e-Asr University of Rafsanjan (Rafsanjan, Iran). Observations were

This study describes the genetic diversity and the population structure of 66 popcorn landrace collections in a recently discovered microcenter of maize (Zea mays L.) diversity in southern Brazil. Furthermore, we elucidate their phylogenetic relationships with a diverse panel of 575 popcorn populations from 18 countries of American Continent. The germplasm, representing distinct landraces, was genetically

Myristica andamanica Hook f., an economically and ecologically important member of the Myristicaceae family, is endemic to Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It has been categorized as vulnerable by IUCN and hence, conscious efforts for conservation are required. In the present study, assisted regeneration through nursery raising was standardized. Studies revealed that water-sinking and non-rattling seeds

Glycyrrhiza is a widely used traditional Chinese herb with medicinal values. In order to avoid handling a large number of collections with redundant genetic information, it is necessary to construct a core collection with minimal accessions and maximal genetic diversity. In this study, the initial collection consisted of 736 accessions from four species, each of which was analyzed using SSR markers

Local varieties and landraces are traditional crops that have evolved over time through adaptation to their natural and cultural environment. They are presently regarded as a valuable genetic reservoir, given that most of the genetic diversity of domesticated species lies in these and other traditionally used varieties. The 'Platense' tomato landrace is adapted to the local soil and climate of the

Crop wild relatives are important for agriculture because they contain high levels of genetic diversity and grow in a wide range of habitats and environments. Colombia has the largest number of cacao crop wild relatives in the world, including different species of the genus Theobroma and its sister genus Herrania. This paper investigates diversity and distribution of cacao crop wild relatives in Colombia

Crop wild relatives of rice (Oryza sativa L.) are an important reservoir of genes for broadening the genetic base of commercial varieties. India is the centre of genetic diversity of some of the wild as-well-as the cultivated rice species. In order to collect genetic diversity, explorations were undertaken in six states located in different agro-ecological zones of India. Forty-four accessions belonging

Monitoring viability loss of seeds conserved ex situ for timely germplasm regeneration is a challenging task in germplasm management and conservation as the process of seed deterioration under long-term storage remains poorly understood and effective tools for assessing seed deterioration are lacking. This paper reports findings from four experiments that were aimed to study the fragmentation of mitochondrial

In this study, a QTL mapping method combining multiple traits is proposed. The key feature of the new method is that it tests all possible traits and chooses those affected traits in the model for a specific QTL, whereas these “working” traits may be different for different QTL. The BIC model selection criteria was used to choose the best model and to ascertain the “working” traits; then the “working”

The establishment of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) in Martinique is an old story. Some authors believe that the first cocoa trees were planted there by the native Caribbean people, while others indicate that cocoa was introduced in the seventeenth century. Since then, the history of cocoa farming in Martinique has been punctuated by different waves of introduction from various countries and by cyclonic