Origin and ancestry of Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) As revealed by AFLP markers

Abstract

The origin and ancestry for Egyptian clover, Trifolium alexandrinum, was examined using AFLP data. The data support a close relationship of T. alexandrinum accessions from Syria and Egypt to T. apertum, T. berytheum, and T. salmoneum. However, crossability and geographic distributions suggest that T. apertum is an unlikely progenitor. In contrast, T. salmoneum appears to be the most probable progenitor for Syrian material of Egyptian clover, although a close relationship to T. berytheum was also revealed. The ability of these species to cross freely indicates that T. salmoneum and T. berytheum may be regarded as the primary ancestors from, which man domesticated Egyptian clover through artificial selection in Syria. Following domestication, the earlier forms of the crop species could have been taken into rain-fed cultivation in Palestine and irrigated cultivation in Egypt. In this regard, the domestication of Egyptian clover may be analogous to other crops, such as barley and wheat, which were also domesticated in the Fertile Crescent and taken into cultivation in the Nile Valley. It appears that genetic improvement of the crop occurred in Egypt after cultivation, and that the varieties that were developed in Egypt were later distributed worldwide.

Pheno-morphological variation, genetic diversity and population structure of Tunisian Echinus Medic (Medicago ciliaris L.)

“…Thus, the molecular technique and the number of primer combinations used in this study were sufficient and reliable for revealing genetic polymorphisms. These results are consistent with findings from studies that used the AFLP technique for a variety of applications, such as genetic diversity assessment, phylogenetic studies, and genetic mapping in several crops (Badr et al, 2008;Elazreg et al, 2011;Marghali et al, 2014).…”

“…For that purpose, we used the AFLP technique, which has been applied to a wide range of topics in biotechnological research and has been used extensively to assess genetic diversity and characterize germplasm collections (Badr et al, 2008).…”

Overexpression of HARDY, an AP2/ERF gene from Arabidopsis, improves drought and salt tolerance by reducing transpiration and sodium uptake in transgenic Trifolium alexandrinum L.

“…), in particular Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.), are important forage crops in semi-arid regions (Iannucci et al 2000;Badr et al 2008). Nonetheless, overexpression studies for improving drought and salt tolerance in clovers are very rare although engineering of other traits such as enrichment with high-sulphur protein has been reported in Trifolium repens (Sharma et al 1998;Christiansen et al 2000).…”

Comparative proteomic analysis of pollen of Trifolium pratense, T. alexandrinum and T. repens

“…The clover genus Trifolium has over 200 species (Ellison et al, 2006;Badr et al, 2008), about 10% of which are used as forage plants in commercial agriculture, and a greater number are used locally for fodder (Williams, Nichols, 2011). The most important clover species are white clover (Trifolium repens L.), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.).…”

“…Berseem clover is widely cultivated as a forage crop in Asia and Africa. The varieties of genetic improvements of the crop that had been developed in Egypt were later distributed worldwide (Badr et al, 2008). White clover (T. repens L.) is a temperate perennial forage legume widely used in pastoral systems.…”