Comparison of Morphological and Genetic Characteristics of Avocados Grown in Tanzania.

Tanzania has been growing avocado for decades. A wide variability of the avocado germplasm has been found, and the crop is largely contributing to the earnings of the farmers, traders, and the government, but its genetic diversity is scantly investigated. With the purpose of comparing morphological and genetic characteristics of this germplasm and uncovering the correlation between them and the geographical location, 226 adult seedling avocado trees were sampled in southwestern Tanzania. Their morphological characters were recorded, and their genetic diversity was evaluated based on 10 microsatellite loci. Discriminant analysis of principal components showed that the germplasm studied consisted of four genetic clusters that had an overall average gene diversity of 0.59 and 15.9% molecular variation among them. Most of the phenotypes were common in at least two clusters. The genetic clusters were also portrayed by multivariate analysis and hierarchical clustering for the molecular data but not for the morphology data. Using the Mantel test, a weak significant correlation was found between the genetic, morphological, and geographical distances, which indicates that the genetic variation present in the material is weakly reflected by the observed phenotypic variation and that both measures of variation varied slightly with the geographical sampling locations.

Significant progressive heterobeltiosis in banana crossbreeding.

BACKGROUND: Heterobeltiosis is the phenomenon when the hybrid's performance is superior to its best performing parent. Banana (Musa spp. AAA) breeding is a tedious, time-consuming process, taking up to two decades to develop a consumer acceptable hybrid. Exploiting heterobeltiosis in banana breeding will help to select breeding material with high complementarity, thus increasing banana breeding efficiency. The aim of this study was therefore to determine and document the level of heterobeltiosis of bunch weight and plant stature in the East African highland bananas, in order to identify potential parents that can be used to produce offspring with desired bunch weight and stature after a few crosses. RESULTS: This research found significant progressive heterobeltiosis in cross-bred 'Matooke' (highland cooking) banana hybrids, also known as NARITAs, when grown together across years with their parents and grandparents in Uganda. Most (all except 4) NARITAs exhibited positive heterobeltiosis for bunch weight, whereas slightly more than half of them had negative heterobeltiosis for stature. The secondary triploid NARITA 17 had the highest heterobeltiosis for bunch weight: 249% versus its 'Matooke' grandparent and 136% against its primary tetraploid parent. Broad sense heritability (across three cropping cycles) for yield potential and bunch weight were high (0.84 and 0.76 respectively), while that of plant stature was very low (0.0035). There was a positive significant correlation (P < 0.05) between grandparent heterobeltiosis for bunch weight and genetic distance between parents (r = 0.39, P = 0.036), bunch weight (r = 0.7, P < 0.001), plant stature (r = 0.38, P = 0.033) and yield potential (r = 0.59, P < 0.001). Grandparent heterobeltiosis for plant stature was significantly, but negatively, correlated to the genetic distance between parents (r = - 0.6, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Such significant heterobeltiosis exhibited for bunch weight is to our knowledge the largest among main food crops. Since bananas are vegetatively propagated, the effect of heterobeltiosis is easily fixed in the hybrids and will not be lost over time after the release and further commercialization of these hybrids.

Genetic diversity of avocado from the southern highlands of Tanzania as revealed by microsatellite markers.

BACKGROUND: Avocado is an important cash crop in Tanzania, however its genetic diversity is not thoroughly investigated. This study was undertaken to explore the genetic diversity of avocado in the southern highlands using microsatellite markers. A total of 226 local avocado trees originating from seeds were sampled in eight districts of the Mbeya, Njombe and Songwe regions. Each district was considered as a population. The diversity at 10 microsatellite loci was investigated. RESULTS: A total of 167 alleles were detected across the 10 loci with an average of 16.7 ± 1.3 alleles per locus. The average expected and observed heterozygosity were 0.84 ± 0.02 and 0.65 ± 0.04, respectively. All but two loci showed a significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg principle. Analysis of molecular variance showed that about 6% of the variation was partitioned among the eight geographic populations. Population FST pairwise comparisons revealed lack of genetic differentiation for the seven of 28 population pairs tested. The principal components analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis showed a mixing of avocado trees from different districts. The model-based STRUCTURE subdivided the trees samples into four major genetic clusters. CONCLUSION: High diversity detected in the analysed avocado germplasm implies that this germplasm is a potentially valuable source of variable alleles that might be harnessed for genetic improvement of this crop in Tanzania. The mixing of avocado trees from different districts observed in the PCA and dendrogram points to strong gene flow among the avocado populations, which led to population admixture revealed in the STRUCTURE analysis. However, there is still significant differentiation among the tree populations from different districts that can be utilized in the avocado breeding program.

Crossbreeding East African Highland Bananas: Lessons Learnt Relevant to the Botany of the Crop After 21 Years of Genetic Enhancement.

East African highland bananas (EAHB) were regarded as sterile. Their screening for female fertility with "Calcutta 4" as male parent revealed that 37 EAHB were fertile. This was the foundation for the establishment of the EAHB crossbreeding programs by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in Uganda in the mid-1990s. The aim of this study was to assess the progress and efficiency of the EAHB breeding program at IITA, Sendusu in Uganda. Data on pollinations, seeds generated and germinated, plus hybrids selected between 1995 and 2015 were analyzed. Pollination success and seed germination percentages for different cross combinations were calculated. The month of pollination did not result in significantly different (P = 0.501) pollination success. Musa acuminata subsp. malaccensis accession 250 had the highest pollination success (66.8%), followed by the cultivar "Rose" (66.6%) among the diploid males. Twenty-five EAHB out of 41 studied for female fertility produced up to 305 seeds per pollinated bunch, and were therefore deemed fertile. The percentage of seed germination varied among crosses: 26% for 2x × 4x, 23% for 2x × 2x, 11% for 3x × 2x, and 7% for 4x × 2x. Twenty-seven NARITA hybrids (mostly secondary triploids ensuing from the 4x × 2x) were selected for further evaluation in the East African region. One so far -"NARITA 7"- was officially released to farmers in Uganda. Although pollination of EAHB can be conducted throughout the year, the seed set and germination is low. Thus, further research on pollination conditions and optimization of embryo culture protocols should be done to boost seed set and embryo germination, respectively. More research in floral biology and seed germination as well as other breeding strategies are required to increase the efficiency of the EAHB breeding program.

Suitability of existing Musa morphological descriptors to characterize East African highland 'matooke' bananas.

Morphological traits are commonly used for characterizing plant genetic resources. Germplasm characterization should be based on distinctly identifiable, stable and heritable traits that are expressed consistently and are easy to distinguish by the human eye. Characterization and documentation of a representative sample of East African highland bananas (Lujugira-Mutika subgroup) was carried out following an internationally accepted standard protocol for bananas. Eleven cultivars were characterized using an existing set of minimum descriptors (31 qualitative and quantitative traits) with the aim of determining stable descriptors and the ability of these descriptors to distinguish among East African highland banana cultivars. There was variation in stability of these descriptors within cultivars and across the 11 cultivars. Only 10 (32%) out of 31 descriptors studied were stable in the 11 cultivars. However, they had similar scores and therefore are not suitable to distinguish between cultivars within this group. Nonetheless, these 10 descriptors may be useful for distinguishing the East African highland bananas as a group from other groups of bananas. A few descriptors were unique to the cultivar 'Tereza' and may be used to distinguish this cultivar from other 'matooke' cultivars. None of the quantitative descriptors were stable.

Genetic diversity and occurrence of the F129L substitutions among isolates of Alternaria solani in south-eastern Sweden.

BACKGROUND: Early blight, caused by the fungus Alternaria solani, occurs on potato mainly in the south-eastern part of Sweden, but also in other parts of the country. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity of A. solani populations from different potato growing regions in south-eastern Sweden using AFLP marker analysis. In addition, the cultured isolates were examined for substitutions in the gene encoding cytochrome b, associated with loss of sensitivity against QoI fungicides. RESULTS: Nei's gene diversity index for the Swedish populations of A. solani revealed a gene diversity of up to 0.20. Also genetic differentiation was observed among populations of A. solani from different locations in south-eastern Sweden. The mitochondrial genotype of the isolates of A. solani was determined and both known genotypes, GI (genotype 1) and GII (genotype 2), were found among the isolates. The occurrence of the F129L substitution associated with a loss of sensitivity to strobilurins was confirmed among the GII isolates. In vitro conidial germination tests verified that isolates containing the F129L substitution had reduced sensitivity to azoxystrobin and, at a lower extent, to pyraclostrobin. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic diversity was relatively high among isolates of A. solani in south-eastern part of Sweden. F129L substitutions, leading to reduced sensitivity to strobilurins, have been established in field populations, which may have implications for the future efficacy of QoI fungicides.

Economically viable components from Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) in a biorefinery concept.

Biorefinery applications are receiving growing interest due to climatic and waste disposal issues and lack of petroleum resources. Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.) is suitable for biorefinery applications due to high biomass production and limited cultivation requirements. This paper focuses on the potential of Jerusalem artichoke as a biorefinery crop and the most viable products in such a case. The carbohydrates in the tubers were found to have potential for production of platform chemicals, e.g., succinic acid. However, economic analysis showed that production of platform chemicals as a single product was too expensive to be competitive with petrochemically produced sugars. Therefore, production of several products from the same crop is a must. Additional products are protein based ones from tubers and leaves and biogas from residues, although both are of low value and amount. High bioactive activity was found in the young leaves of the crop, and the sesquiterpene lactones are of specific interest, as other compounds from this group have shown inhibitory effects on several human diseases. Thus, future focus should be on understanding the usefulness of small molecules, to develop methods for their extraction and purification and to further develop sustainable and viable methods for the production of platform chemicals.