Genetic diversity in passion fruit plants at different altitudes

Abstract

Passion fruit belongs to the Passifloraceae family and to the genus Passiflora, which is economically relevant. This genus is originated from Brazil, which has the greatest genetic diversity. The altitudinal gradient may influence the distribution of genetic variation in and between plant populations and genetic diversity may change according to the altitude. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity in passion fruit in different altitudes of Espírito Santo, using microsatellite markers (SSR) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR). Five matrixes plants of each species of Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Degener, P. edulis Sims and P. alata Curtis were studied at three altitudes (low, medium and high) in the state of Espírito Santo. For each sample, 13 microsatellite markers developed for Passiflora edulis and 14 ISSR primers were amplified according to the greatest number of polymorphic fragments and amplification quality. Low values of alleles were found (1-3), and low heterozygosity was expected and slight PIC values were found, while for the ISSR analysis a large number of bands per primer were detected and high polymorphism. The P. alata Curtis species was the most divergent to P. edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg. and P. edulis Sims. The SSR and ISSR markers enabled us to indicate differences among the species, but they did not always show variation between and within similar species. The populations of low altitude are different from the others, independent of the species and the marker used. The habitat has a highly important influence on genetic diversity.

Molecular characterization of Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Degener with ISSRs markers

“…The seven ISSR markers used to characterize the genetic diversity of the 21 passion fruit cultivars generated 255 loci, which is considered appropriate for conducting a genetic study, results similar to those found in other characterizations of Passiflora germplasm (Ho et al, 2021;Silva et al, 2022;Morillo et al, 2023). The percentage of polymorphism found in the evaluation of the 21 cultivars was higher than 80% (Table 2) are similar to the data available in the literature for different species of the genus Passiflora based on ISSR markers (Maciel et al, 2019;Martinez et al, 2020;Ho et al, 2021). The values found here were higher than those observed in P. cincinnata for Embrapa Cassava & Fruits Collection (87.4%) and in the Embrapa Cerrados Collection (Silva et al, 2022).…”

Structure and molecular genetic diversity in natural populations and active germplasm banks of Passiflora cincinnata Mast.

“…The He estimates between populations/AGBs showed values ≥ 0.28, ranging from 0.28 (Anagé) to 0.38 (Embrapa Cerrados) (Table 4). The percentages of polymorphism found at the species level (100%) (Table 3) and between populations/collections (≥ 75%) (Table 4) are similar to the data available in the literature for different species of the genus Passiflora based on ISSR primers (Costa et al, 2012;Pereira et al, 2015;Sousa et al, 2015;Fonseca et al, 2017;Vianna et al, 2019;Maciel et al, 2019;Martínez et al, 2020;Ho et al, 2021) with percentages ranging from 75 (Martínez et al, 2020) to 100% (Ho et al, 2021). The observed polymorphism rates may be associated with the flower anatomy, which, although presenting anatomical characteristics of complete flowers with the two reproductive organs, gynoecium and androecium, present selfincompatibility due to floral morphology.…”

“…Although in recent decades an advance has been observed in the quantification of genetic characterizations of the genus Passiflora and diversification of the adopted molecular tools/techniques (Cerqueira-Silva et al, 2016), there is a concentration of research using species with the highest commercial interest and, mainly, accessions maintained in germplasm banks or from producing regions (Cerqueira-Silva et al, 2014b;Martínez et al, 2020). The current scenario indicates that research dedicated to the genetic characterization of natural populations of wild passion fruit is incipient (Pereira et al, 2015;Maciel et al, 2019).…”

Qualidade Fisiológica De Sementes De Genótipos De Passiflora Mucronata Após Teste De Deterioração Controlada E Tratamentos Pré-Germinativos

“…Além da utilização como alimento, as espécies de Passifloraceae têm importância econômica, como medicinais e ornamentais. Somado ao interesse econômico, a família Passifloraceae tem fundamental importância ecológica e a diversidade de espécies merece destaque (FALEIRO et al, 2015;FRANÇA et al, 2018;MACIEL et al, 2019).…”