Miracle Tree Moringa oleifera: Status of the Genetic Diversity, Breeding, In Vitro Propagation, and a Cogent Source of Commercial Functional Food and Non-Food Products.

Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) is a fast-growing drought-resistant tree belonging to the family Moringaceae and native to the Indian subcontinent and cultivated and/or naturalized worldwide with a semi-arid climate. MO is also popularly known as a miracle tree for its repertoire of nutraceutical, pharmacological, and phytochemical properties. The MO germplasm is collected, conserved, and maintained by various institutions across the globe. Various morphological, biochemical, and molecular markers are used for determining the genetic diversity in MO accessions. A higher yield of leaves and pods is often desirable for making various products with commercial viability and amenable for trade in the international market. Therefore, breeding elite varieties adapted to local agroclimatic conditions and in vitro propagation are viable and sustainable approaches. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of MO germplasm conservation and various markers that are employed for assessing the genetic diversity among them. Further, breeding and in vitro propagation of MO for various desirable agronomic traits are discussed. Finally, trade and commerce of various functional and biofortified foods and non-food products are enumerated albeit with a need for a rigorous and stringent toxicity evaluation.

Exploring the genetic makeup and population structure among Capsicum accessions for crop improvement and breeding curriculum insights.

BACKGROUND: Capsicum or chilli is an important crop in India which exhibits immense structural and genetic variations reflecting their intra- and inter-specific relationships. The aim of this study was to establish relationships amongst 54 Capsicum accessions through analysis of genetic and population structure using ISSR markers. RESULTS: Out of 19, successful DNA amplifications were shown by 7 ISSR primers and a total of 80 bands were identified ranging between 8 and 14 with an average of 11.43 bands/primer. A significant degree of polymorphic information content (PIC), discriminating power (DP), resolving power (RP), effective multiplex ratio (EMR), and marker index (MI) were identified as 0.39, 0.70, 6.40, 5.88, and 2.30, respectively, using ISSR markers in chillies. The cross-transferability ranged from 8.0 to 72.15% with an average of 52.63% among chillies. Amongst genetic information, grand mean values were 0.264, 0.180, 0.376, 0.296, and 0.180, which correspond to Shannon's information index (I), expected heterozygosity (He), Nei's gene diversity, total diversity among species (Ht), diversity within species (Hs), respectively. Further, the coefficients of gene differentiation (Gst) and gene flow (Nm) were 0.393 and 0.773, representing higher genetic variation among the population which was confirmed by analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). CONCLUSION: ISSR markers represented a potent system for the estimation of relationships or variation studies and generated information useful for planning crop management and improvement strategies in chilli breeding.

Genetic diversity in leafy mustard (Brassica juncea var. rugosa) as revealed by agro-morphological traits and SSR markers.

Leafy mustard (B. juncea var. rugosa) constitutes an important group of vegetable mustard crops in India and is mainly cultivated in home-backyard and hilly regions of Uttarakhand and some North-eastern states. In the present study, various agro-morphological traits, physiological and biochemical traits along with SSR markers were used for genetic diversity evaluation in a germplasm collection of leafy mustard. This study revealed a significant variation among 59 accessions of leafy mustard in both qualitative and quantitative agro-morphological traits indicating the accessions' promising potential for consumption purpose and for use in breeding programs. Maximum variability was recorded for leaf area elongation rate (CV = 53.12%), followed by total plant weight (TPW) (CV = 50.63%) and seed yield per plant (CV = 44.33%). In molecular analysis, 155 SSRs evaluated resulted in 482 alleles and the number of alleles varied form 1 to 8 with an average of 3.11 alleles per marker. A total of 122 (78.70%) SSRs resulted into polymorphic amplicons. PIC value varied from 0.32 to 0.77 with an average value of 0.44 per SSR locus. The unweighted neighbour-joining-based dendrogram analysis divided all the 59 accessions into two major groups on the basis of both agro-morphological traits and SSR markers, whereas, three subpopulations/subgroups were predicted by population STRUCTURE analysis. AMOVA indicated the presence of more variability within population than among population. Overall, agro-morphologically better performing and genetically diverse genotypes have been identified which could be further used as donors for leafy mustard improvement programs.

Translation initiation codon (ATG) or SCoT markers-based polymorphism study within and across various Capsicum accessions: insight from their amplification, cross-transferability and genetic diversity.

Being an economical and nutritional crop, Capsicum appeases people's peppery taste and is found to bewidely distributed all over the world having vast diversity. In the present study, genetic polymorphism, cross transferability (CT) and genetic diversity were examined among the 54 different accessions of Capsicum species including 49 of Capsicum annuum, three of C. baccatum and two of C. frutescens, using a set of 36 start codon targeted (SCoT) primers. Of the total, 35 SCoT markers showed successful amplification profile among chilli germplasms and an average primer polymorphism was reported as 81.52% which ranged from 50% (SCoT-6) to 100% (SCoT-11). A total of 365 amplicons were obtained with an average of 10.43 bands per primer and the length of the bands ranged from 150 bp to 1.2 kb. Further, polymorphic information content value of SCoT markers ranged from 0.42 (for SCoT-25) to 0.86 (SCoT-27) with an average of 0.78. The average value of CT of SCoT markers was 44.08% ranged from 14.25% to 57.26% among different chilli accessions. A dendrogram was constructed and established genetic relationship among 54 capsicum species, with the help of translation initiation codon polymorphisms or SCoT primer amplification. This study suggests the effectiveness of SCoT marker system for characterizing and assessing genetic diversity of Capsicum germplasm, which can be used for evolutionary studies and to identify agronomically important traits.

An appraisal of cuticular wax of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br.: Extraction, chemical composition, biosafety and application.

Plastic and polythene as hydrophobic materials become a grave concern due to their non-biodegradable nature, cumbersome recycling and waste management. Cuticular wax derived from Calotropis procera is explored as an eco-friendly and safe hydrophobic material. The effects of duration of exposure to solvent, solvent type, size and side of the leaf on cuticular wax yield have been studied. Leaf with the smallest area (10 cm2-25 cm2) was found to be the most suitable to isolate the wax. GC-MS analysis of the wax revealed that the wax consists of mainly esters, alkane and alkene. Mitochondrial reductase (MTT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay have been carried out on M5S cell line at various concentrations and the results indicate that up to 1 µg/ml (acetone as solvent) and 3 µg/ml (chloroform as solvent) use of wax has no toxic effect. To evaluate the hydrophobic potential of the wax in developing hydrophobic paper water regains and contact angle has been measured. The gain in hydrophobicity of the paper is evident from the rise in contact angle (≥90˚) of paper coated with wax. Scanning electron micrograph and FTIR spectra generated physical and chemical evidence of coating of wax on paper.

RAPD and ISSR marker assessment of genetic diversity in Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad: a unique source of germplasm highly adapted to drought and high-temperature stress.

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) shows high levels of variation in fruit color, fruit stripe pattern, seed coat color, and size. Thirty-eight accessions of C. colocynthis plants from different parts of semi-arid Rajasthan were collected and genetic diversity was assessed using random-amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Out of 65 RAPD decamer primers, 50 primers produced 549 scorable bands of which 318 were polymorphic. Polymorphic banding patterns with the number of amplified fragments varied from 5 (OPA-08 and OPF-9) to 19 (OPT-20) in the molecular size range of 150-6000 bp. Percent polymorphism ranged from 22.2% (OPA-09) to 83.3% (OPE-12) with 55.14% polymorphism. Out of the 20 ISSR primers screened, 13 primers produced 166 amplification products, of which 99 were polymorphic. The number of bands amplified per primer varied between 9 (UBC-807, 802) and 16 (UBC-803, 812) with average band size between 250 and 4000 bp. Percent polymorphism ranged from 45.4% (UBC-815) to 73.3% (UBC-814) with 65.05% polymorphism. Dendrogram constructed on the basis of RAPD + ISSR polymorphism separated the accessions into four distinct clusters at 72% variation with Jaccard's similarity coefficient ranging from minimum 0.64 to 0.95. The matrices for RAPD and ISSR were also compared using Mantel's test and obtained correlation value (r = 0.7947). Discriminating power of RAPD and ISSR markers was assessed by calculating polymorphic information content, multiplex ratio, marker index, and resolving power. Approx. 50% RAPD and ISSR markers showed PIC value and heterozygosity (H) ≥ 0.50, indicating marker as informative. The primers that showed higher polymorphism had higher RP, MR, and MI values.

Assessment of Functional EST-SSR Markers (Sugarcane) in Cross-Species Transferability, Genetic Diversity among Poaceae Plants, and Bulk Segregation Analysis.

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are important resource for gene discovery, gene expression and its regulation, molecular marker development, and comparative genomics. We procured 10000 ESTs and analyzed 267 EST-SSRs markers through computational approach. The average density was one SSR/10.45 kb or 6.4% frequency, wherein trinucleotide repeats (66.74%) were the most abundant followed by di- (26.10%), tetra- (4.67%), penta- (1.5%), and hexanucleotide (1.2%) repeats. Functional annotations were done and after-effect newly developed 63 EST-SSRs were used for cross transferability, genetic diversity, and bulk segregation analysis (BSA). Out of 63 EST-SSRs, 42 markers were identified owing to their expansion genetics across 20 different plants which amplified 519 alleles at 180 loci with an average of 2.88 alleles/locus and the polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.51 to 0.93 with an average of 0.83. The cross transferability ranged from 25% for wheat to 97.22% for Schlerostachya, with an average of 55.86%, and genetic relationships were established based on diversification among them. Moreover, 10 EST-SSRs were recognized as important markers between bulks of pooled DNA of sugarcane cultivars through BSA. This study highlights the employability of the markers in transferability, genetic diversity in grass species, and distinguished sugarcane bulks.