Genetic diversity assessment among Corema album (L.) D. Don (Ericaceae) genotypes based on ISSR markers and agro-morphological traits

Abstract

Corema album (L.) D. Don is the only species of the genus Corema growing naturally on sand dunes throughout the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted for the white coloured berries and nutritional value. The lack of information on genetic studies of the species is one of the most limitations for the establishment of this species as a new culture. Thus, this study focuses on the assessment of the genetic diversity based on inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) molecular markers and morphological traits. Seventy-one female plants, from four different sampled sites, were evaluated using six ISSR loci and eight morphological traits. Fifty polymorphic loci were detected. The dendrogram based on the UPGMA method and the principal coordinate analysis classified the 71 C. album genotypes into distinct clusters. The analyses revealed that accessions from the same geographical area were generally, but not entirely, clustered into the same group. Analysis of molecular variance was higher among populations, than within populations. The analysis of morphological traits revealed that there is no distinct separation among the C. album genotypes grown in different geographic areas. To our knowledge, this is the first study on the assessment of the genetic diversity in this species.

Quality attributes of cultivated white crowberries (Corema album (L.) D. Don) from a multi-origin clonal field

“…47% to 71% of fruits were within this calibre. In wild populations, similar fruit calibre (in the range of 8.25-10.25 mm) has been reported (Andrade et al 2017b;Jacinto et al 2020;Larrinaga and Guitían 2016;Oliveira and Dale 2012); however, in our study, we also found fruits with a diameter >10.25 mm in samples collected from the Meco, Comporta and Cabo Sardão populations (from 36% up to 47% of the total fruits). On the other hand, also fruits with smaller calibre (7.5-8.25 mm) were frequent, especially in fruits collected from Mira and Quiaios populations (30% of the total fruits).…”

“…However, all these studies refer to C. album fruits collected from wild specimens and, therefore, provide information regarding a single population. C. album populations hold distinct genetic backgrounds which could significantly influence fruits physicalchemical attributes (Jacinto et al 2020), together with local edaphoclimatic conditions (Åkerström et al 2010;Rohloff et al 2015). Moreover, Oliveira et al (2020b) concluded that within the same wild population, different genotypes gather distinct traits of interest, which supports the establishment of a breeding program for the species.…”

Winter Collection of the Underutilized Berry Corema Album (l.): New Insights on its Maturation Progression

“…The majority of plants were carrying berries of different colours, and some were especially rich in the number of berries (Figure 1a). Presence of white fruits at any moment, and even during flowering, was already reported [12,13]. Magalhães [13] indicated brown berries as the complete maturation phase, corresponding to fruit senescence.…”

Multivariate analysis from maturase K (matK) gene-based markers and morphological indices in Indian cashew

“…In our study, characteristics such as tree spread, trunk height, vegetative flush/m 2 , nut weight, kernel weight, kernel length, flowering duration and yield showed the highest variability which were in agreement with the findings of Aliyu and Awopetu (2011); Jacinto et al . (2020) and Adu-Gyamfi et al . (2020) for agro-morphological traits of cashew.…”