Investigating the geographical, phenotypic and genetic diversity of Sickleweed populations by bioclimatic parameters, morphological traits and SCoT molecular markers

Mehdi Rahimi; Elaheh Ranjbaran

doi:10.1007/s12298-023-01296-7

Investigating the geographical, phenotypic and genetic diversity of Sickleweed populations by bioclimatic parameters, morphological traits and SCoT molecular markers

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2023 Mar;29(3):421-433. doi: 10.1007/s12298-023-01296-7. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Mehdi Rahimi¹, Elaheh Ranjbaran¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Science and High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran.

Abstract

Sickleweed (Falcaria vulgaris) is important due to its nutritional value and medicinal effects on the human body. The 15 different Sickleweed populations were collected based on an unbalanced nest design with 10 replications and nine morphological traits were measured on them. The diversity was investigated with 15 primers of SCoT marker. The genetic diversity was investigated by ANOVA, cluster analysis and Bayesian statistical model based on morphological traits, bioclimatic and SCoT. Grouping the study areas based on bioclimatic parameters by UPGMA method showed that these areas were divided into two groups and were similar in terms of climatic similarities and bioclimatic information. The results of analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference between populations at the level of one percent for the studied traits. The cluster analysis based traits by the UPGMA method divided these populations into two groups. The phenotypic diversity of these populations was largely consistent with the geographical diversity. The primers used for SCoT marker produced 137 polymorphic bands on the populations, The UPGMA cluster analysis with molecular data placed the studied populations into three groups and four subgroups. Grouping based on the Bayesian method placed the populations into nine groups, although the populations were not differentiated and were a mixture of all nine groups. High genetic diversity for the studied Sickleweed populations have showed valuable insights into the evolution of this plant and provides basic data for designing appropriate management practices for breeding Sickleweed populations.

Keywords: Bayesian; Cluster analysis; Diversity; Morphological.

© Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.