Evaluating Agronomic Performance and Investigating Molecular Structure of Drought and Heat Tolerant Wild Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Collection from the Southeastern Turkey

Abstract

Drought is a major stress factor for agricultural production including alfalfa production. One way to counterbalance the yield losses is the introgression of drought tolerant germplasm into breeding programs. As an effort to exploit such germplasm, 16 individual plants were selected from the Southeastern Turkey from their natural habitat and clonally propagated in field trials with an ultimate goal to use the germplasm as parents for releasing a synthetic cultivar. Forage yield and forage quality traits were evaluated and molecular genetic diversity among genotypes were determined using inter simple sequence repeat markers. Genotypes showed a variation from growth habit to yield and quality traits indicating sufficient phenotypic variation for diverse breeding efforts (for grazing or harvesting) and long term selection schemes. A large amount of genetic variation was observed even with a limited number of marker and genotypes. However, no pattern of spatial genetic structure was observed for the scale of the study when genetic variation is linked to the geographic origin. We conclude that ex situ natural variation provides a wealth of germplasm that could be incorporated into breeding programs aiming to improve drought tolerance. We also suggest an extensive collection of seeds/plant tissue from unique plants with desirable traits rather than putting more efforts to create a spatial germplasm sampling efforts in narrow regions.

Medicago sativa species complex: Revisiting the century‐old problem in the light of molecular tools

“…The first molecular studies focused on the genetic diversity of cultivated material or germplasm sources of alfalfa (Al Lawati, 2006; Basbag, Aydin, & Sakiroglu, 2017; Bhandari, Lawati, & Ray, 2011; Crochemore, Huyghe, Kerlan, Durand, & Julier, 1996; Falahati‐Anbaran, Habashi, Esfahany, Mohammadi, & Ghareyazie, 2007; Flajoulot et al., 2005; Jenczewski, Prosperi, & Ronfort, 1999; Kidwell, Austin, & Osborn, 1994; Malosetti, Van der Linden, Vosman, & Van Eeuwijk, 2007; Maureira, Ortega, Campos, & Osborn, 2004; Mengoni, Gori, & Bazzicalupo, 2000; Mohammadzadeh et al., 2011; Qiang et al., 2015; Segovia‐Lerma, Cantrell, Conway, & Ray, 2003). Among the members of complex, the tetraploid progenitors of the modern cultivated alfalfa (mainly subsp.…”

Determining the performance of alfalfa population collected from a narrow agroeceological zone of Turkey

“…BASBAG et al (2009), collected 11 alfalfa clones from Southeastern and Eastern Regions of Turkey and determined a significant variation in quality properties of alfalfa clones for ADF (16.8-33.3%) and . In a study of Basbag et al, (2017), 16 individual plants were selected from the Southeastern Turkey from their natural habitat and clonally propagated in field trials where ADF values ranged from 20.52 to 37.71 % and NDF values were between 22.16 and 41.22 %.…”

“…collected 11 alfalfa clones from Southeastern and Eastern Regions of Turkey and determined a significant variation in quality properties of alfalfa clones for crude protein (17.3-23.2%). In a study ofBasbag et al, (2017), 16 individual plants were selected from…”

Phenotypic Diversity and Productivity of Medicago sativa Subspecies from Drought-Prone Environments in Mediterranean Type Climates

“…A large body of literature supports the abundant genetic diversity within the M. sativa-falcata complex [ 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 28 ]. However, genetic diversity used for breeding has been mostly based on cultivated populations.…”

“…There is evidence that the genetic diversity of Medicago sativa has been reduced during the domestication process; indeed, cultivated alfalfa has lost about 30% of its genetic diversity compared to wild populations [ 9 ]. It has been proposed that landraces and wild relatives of alfalfa encompass greater genotypic and phenotypic diversity than commercial cultivars, as well as adaptive traits to survive in extreme drought stress conditions [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”