Genetic diversity analysis of Eggplant Germplasm from Iran: assessments by morphological and SSR markers.

BACKGROUND: Eggplant is an important vegetable that has long been cultivated in different parts of Iran. The major objectives of the eggplant breeding program are to improve fruit quality, increase yield performance through heterosis breeding, and introduce abilities of pest and disease resistance from wild relatives. In order to select suitable parents for breeding purposes, with respect to the genetic and morphological diversity of eggplant cultivars, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge of genetic diversity and classification of germplasms. METHODS: This experiment was conducted in a randomized block design at the Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII) in Karaj, Iran. Here, morphological diversity was assessed among a collection of eggplants which comprised four Iranian lines and 13 non-Iranian genotypes. For this purpose, 16 morphological traits were analyzed in the plants. Given the weakness of morphological analysis in providing precise characterizations of genetic divergence, a molecular study was also carried out by using five Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. In addition to the univariate analysis, the multi-descriptor variation was studied among the genotypes using two methods of multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The genotypes differed significantly in terms of the morphological traits. The multivariate analyses of morphological data indicated that eggplants from two different origins were clearly differentiated. Three main clusters were distinguished by a morphological UPGMA dendrogram in which non-Iranian genotypes, with the exception of 11,212, constituted cluster I and required the maximum number of days to flower, days to fruit set, and days to first harvest. Cluster II was identified with two Iranian lines BJ30, Y60, and one non-Iranian genotype (11,212) which showed the highest values of stem diameter, fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit length-to-width ratio, number of fruits per plant, and yield. Cluster III comprised two Iranian lines, D1 and D7, and showed the maximum plant height, number of internodes, number of nodes, number of leaves, number of stems, fruit weight, and fruits weight per plant. The highest and lowest intra-cluster genetic distances were observed in cluster I and cluster II, respectively. Based on SSR analysis, high levels of similarity were detected between several genotypes, namely, Y60 and 13,411; BJ30 and 1111; D7 and 13,521; 21,881 and 13,421. CONCLUSIONS: High levels of heterozygosity and polymorphism information content (PIC) were observed in this study. This not only indicated high levels of polymorphism and an equal distribution of the evaluated loci but also suggested that these genotypes can be considered for the development of diverse parental lines which are of interest in breeding programs.

Protein adsorption using novel carboxymethyl-curdlan microspheres.

Carboxymethyl-curdlan as a water soluble curdlan derivative, was synthesized in an aqueous alkaline medium using monochloroacetic acid. Novel carboxymethyl-curdlan (CC) microspheres were prepared by the method of W/O/W emulsion. The chemical and morphological structures of CC microspheres were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and particle size analysis. The CC microspheres were spherical, free flowing, non-aggregated and uniform mono-disperse with diameter of 260µm. The prepared CC microspheres were applied to adsorbing Bovine serum albumin (BSA) as model protein. Factors influencing the adsorption of BSA such as solution pH, temperature, initial BSA concentration and ionic strength were examined by batch experiments. The maximum adsorption capacity was calculated as 168mg/g under optimal conditions including BSA initial concentration (4mg/mL), pH (4.7), adsorption time (9h) and temperature (35°C). The adsorption isotherm followed the Langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics fitted the pseudo-second-order model. In addition, the CC microspheres can be also regenerated and re-used.