Biochemical Characterization and Genetic Diversity of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre in Eastern India

Abstract

Biochemical characteristics of 24 Pongamia pinnata genotypes (candidate plus trees) from three agroclimatic zones were estimated and molecular characterization through RAPD markers was done. Various biochemical characters viz. seed oil, total carbohydrates, protein, acid value and Iodine number recorded significant variation among different genotypes. The highest seed oil content was 41.87% while seeds of 14 genotypes recorded above average (32.11%) for the trait. Seed oil and protein content exhibited a significant positive correlation and moderate heritability. Out of the initially selected twenty-five random primers, twenty-two RAPD primers were found to be highly reproducible and produced a total of 183 loci of which 147 (80.32%) loci were polymorphic. Percentage of polymorphism varied from 44% to 100% with an average of 80.62%. High level of genetic variation was found among different genotypes of P. pinnata.Both molecular and oil content (biochemical) markers appeared useful in analyzing the extent of genetic diversity in Pongamia and the result of these analyses will help to better understand the genetic diversity and relationship among populations. Overall, the Pongamia genotypes included in the study showed a correlation with their geographical origins such that genotypes from the same region tend to have higher genetic similarity as compared to those from different regions. However, in UPGMA based Nei's analysis, some genotypes were found not to be grouped based on geographical origins possibly due to the exchange of germplasm over time between farmers across the regions. The results from oil content analyses showed that several genotypes in 'Central and Western Plateau' agroclimatic zone of Jharkhand displayed a good potential for high oil content. The study provides insight about P. pinnata populations in Jharkhand (India) and constitutes a set of useful background information that can be used as a basis for future breeding strategy and improvement of the species.

Variation in seed morpho-physiological and biochemical traits of Java olive populations originated from Java, Bali, Lombok, and Timor Islands, Indonesia

“…Significant variations in fruit and seed morphological traits were also reported in other studies, viz. Pinus wallichiana (Rawat and Bakshi 2011), Cedrus deodara (Mughal and Thapliyal 2012), Pongamia pinnata (Kumari et al 2013), Jatropha curcas (Khadidiatou et al 2013) and Anthocephalus cadamba (Sudrajat 2016).…”

“…Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI, 2010) also reported that the main compositions of java olive seeds are fats and protein which are 51.78% and 21.61% respectively. Variation in seed biochemical traits (carbohydrate, protein, fat) were observed in Pongamia pinnata (Jiang et al 2013;Kumari et al 2013) and Jatropha curcas ( (Kumar and Singh 2014). The seed biochemical contents in the selected genotypes also indicate towards some promising candidates for development and utilization in large scale plantation drives.…”

“…Broad sense heritability is defined as the ratio of all of the genetic variation to the phenotypic variation (Zobel and Talbert 1984) and it is important in predicting the amount of genetic gain. The high heritability value reveals that the offspring has a greater chance of resulting an expression of the trait that is similar to the trait of the parents; contrarily, a low heritability indicates a lower level of similarity (Kumari et al 2013). High predictions of heritability value suggested that these traits may serve as important genetic markers in estimation the selection of best individuals or provenances.…”

“…However, to increase the plantation area and biodiesel production, it is important to domesticate the species initiated by identifying suitable genotypes or populations of java olive bearing high oil-yielding seeds, including information of morphological, physiological, and biochemical characteristics of java olive seeds across wide range of populations. Population variation with respect to seed morphophysiological and biochemical traits has been studied in many species and locations, such as Garcinia kola in Cameroon (Kanmegne et al 2010), Pinus wallichiana in India (Rawat and Bakshi 2011), Jatropa curcas in West Nusa Tenggara (Santoso 2011), Cedrus deodara in Jammu and Kashmir (Mughal and Thapliyal 2012), Pongamia pinnata in India (Kumari et al 2013), and Anthocephalus cadamba in Indonesia (Sudrajat, 2016). In several tree species, significant correlations have been shown to exist between specific seed attributes and specific environmental and geo-climate factors (Ghildiyal et al 2009;Tauchen et al 2011).…”

“…Morphological traits are useful for preliminary evaluation because they facilitate fast and simple evaluation and can be used as a general approach for assessing genetic diversity among morphologically distinguishable accessions (Čolić et al 2012). Morphological traits combined with physiological and biochemical traits were commonly applied for characterization accessions or populations (Kumari et al 2013). With respect to java olive, there are still lack of baseline information on many important traits such particularly as morpho-physiological and biochemical traits.…”