Morphological Assessment of Cultivated and Wild Amaranth Species Diversity (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Plant & Soil Science
The present study was carried out to characterize 209 Amaranth germplasm consisting of 124 grain amaranth and 85 vegetable amaranth accessions for various morphological traits in accordance with the DUS guidelines of PPVFRA, New Delhi. The genotypes were characterized for two seasons viz., kharif and summer, wherein same level of expression was observed for the traits. A total of 17 characters were scored, eight in grain amaranths and nine in vegetable amaranths related to vegetative morphology, inflorescence and seed traits. Distinct forms with respect to leaf colour, inflorescence colour, stem colour and other studied traits were observed among the genotypes. The majority of the grain amaranth accessions were green leaved with yellowish green stem, ridged stem surface having yellowish green, erect and dense inflorescence. Seed colour was predominantly creamish. Shannon-Weaver Diversity Index ranged from 1.778 (inflorescence colour) to 0.524 (presence of leaf blotch). Vegetable ama...
Qualitative morphological diversity of Amaranthus species
Journal of Tropical Agriculture, 2017
Morphological characterization of plant genetic resources generates important information for plant breeders useful for pre-breeding and breeding programmes of crops. Amaranthus is one of the underutilized and genetically potential orphan crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It is a food security crop that can alleviate malnutrition and generate income for the rural communities in South Africa. A number of Amaranthus species have been collected from different regions in the world and conserved in the gene bank of the Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa. The objective of the study was to assess the genetic diversity of these conserved Amaranthus species using qualitative morphological characters. Thirty two species of Amaranthus were evaluated for 16 qualitative morphological characters in the field using a randomized complete block design with three replications. The frequencies for each qualitative character were tabulated. The Shannon ...
Genetic diversity and trait profiles of some Amaranthus genotypes
Advances in Horticultural Science
Knowledge of the pattern of trait variation among accessions, and the trait profiles of the accessions is crucial for improvement of a crop. Twenty-one Amaranthus accessions were evaluated in 2018 and 2019 to investigate the extent of genotypic diversity among the amaranth accessions and their trait profiles. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, and correlation and principal component analyses. Taking stem weight (SWT) as the yield, the accession × yield-trait combination (GYT) biplot was employed to investigate the trait profiles of the accessions. Accession, year, and accession × year mean squares were significant (P≤0.05/0.01) for most of the measured traits. The first three principal components explained 88.18% of observable variation among the accessions and identified plant height (PHT), number of leaves per plant (NOL), and root weight (RWT) as the major contributors. Significant (P≤0.01) correlation was observed in the association of SWT with NOL, TBM, and RWT. Acces...
Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L.) is an important seed crop in the Andes. It has excellent nutritional value and ample capacity for growth under drought, heat, and soil nutrient deficiency. The objective of this study was to characterize and quantify genetic diversity among a series of 178 mostly Peruvian amaranth individuals genotyped from among 48 accessions using 96 biallelic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in KASPar assays on a 96.96 Fluidigm EP1 platform. The 178 seed genotypes included the predominant white-opaque (waxy), white-vitreous (nonwaxy), black, and brown types, all from within the Centro de Investigacion de Cultivos Andinos-Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco collection. The samples separated into two groups based on the seed color parameter (black, brown, and white-vitreous versus white-opaque) with STRUCTURE analysis but did not form distinct genotypic groups based on geographic origin. When analyzed as seed-color subgroups—black vs. brown vs. white-vitreous vs. white-opaque—83.46% of the genetic variation was explained by genetic differences within subgroup. The highest average observed heterozygosity (Ho) within color-based subgroups was 0.2612 in the vitreous-seeded subgroup, and within-group expected heterozygosity (He) was highest in the brown-seeded subgroup (0.398). Cluster analysis and principal component analysis partitioned the amaranth accessions into two clusters with four distinct subclusters. Analyses also revealed evidence for selection of nonwaxy, vitreous-seeded amaranth in the Andes.
Relationship of Cultivated Grain Amaranth Species and Wild Relative Accessions
Genes
Amaranthus is a genus of C4 dicotyledonous herbaceous plants, and three New World species have been domesticated to produce grain crops with light colored seed which are classified as pseudo-cereals rich in protein and minerals. A core collection of grain amaranths and immediate precursor species has been established, representing the closest related species. The goal of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity in that collection of cultivated and wild species, using competitive allele single nucleotide polymorphism markers. A secondary objective was to determine the relationships among the three cultivated species and non-domesticated Amaranthus, while a third objective was to evaluate the utility of the markers in detecting diversity in the 276 genotypes. The markers were found to be highly variable with an average polymorphism information content of 0.365. All markers were bi-allelic; and the major allele frequency ranged from 0.388 to 0.871. Population structure analysis...
Bulletin of the National Research Centre, 2019
Background: Grain amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) has been cultivated since ancient times in some countries in the world and it is one of the oldest food crops. At present, the crop has gained more importance in the plains of India, especially in parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Grain amaranth exhibits an incredible extent of morphological diversity and an extensive adaptability to diverse eco-geographical conditions. Hence, the aim of the recent research was to evaluate the genetic diversity of 19 genotypes from four diverse species of Amaranthus from India using ISSR markers. Results: The set of 11 polymorphic ISSR primers produced a total of 114 amplicons, among which 98 amplicons were polymorphic. The mean number of polymorphic amplicons per primer was 8.91. Overall, the size of PCR-amplified DNA fragments ranged from 200 to 3702 bp. The average percent polymorphism was 87.15%, and the average PIC value was 0.853, which indicates good selection of primers in the present study for the assessment of genetic diversity. The unique amplicon (marker)-producing primers were also found which can be used for identification of genotypes. The dendrogram grouped 19 grain amaranth genotypes into two major clusters. The groups formed on the principle component analysis (PCA) plot resembles with the results of the dendrogram although some genotypes have been diverted on the PCA plot. Conclusions: The technique may be used to obtain reasonably precise information on the genetic relationship among grain amaranth genotypes. Such information may be useful for selecting the diverse parents and monitoring the genetic diversity periodically in the breeder’s working collection of grain amaranth.
Genetic variability studies in amaranthus (Amaranthus spp.)
Journal of Horticultural Sciences, 2021
An investigation was carried out to estimate the nature and extent of genetic variability among twenty Amaranthus genotypes (Amaranthus spp.) under a randomized block designduring the year 2019-20. The phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation for all the traits. High genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient variation (PCV) was observed for leaf area, leaf area index, leaf area duration, AGR, dry weight of leaf per plant, specific leaf weight, speed of germination, chlorophyll content and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Moderate GCV and PCV were observed for leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, dry weight of stem per plant, leaf: stem ratio and foliage yield per plant. The high estimates of heritability coupled with higher values of genetic advance as per cent mean (GAM) were observed for the parameters like test weight, speed of germination, germination percentage, seedling dry matter, seed...
Phenetic differentiation and use-type delimitation in Amaranthus spp. from worldwide origins
Scientia Horticulturae, 2014
Amaranthus species have been rediscovered as promising food crops mainly due to their resistance to heat, drought, diseases and pests, and the high nutritional value of both seeds and leaves. This genus include the grain crops Amaranthus cruentus, Amaranthus hypochondriacus and to a less extent Amaranthus caudatus and also the weedy and vegetable species Amaranthus blitum, Amaranthus dubius, Amaranthus graecizans, Amaranthus spinosus, Amaranthus tricolor and Amaranthus viridis. Taxonomic bottlenecks related to similarities between grain, vegetable and weed types are yet to be solved to better understand the evolutionary trend in the group and to develop adequate selection of lines. In the present study, we carried out a phenetic analysis of 100 accessions belonging to nine species with various geographical origins to assess morphological markers and clarify inter-and intraspecific variations among and within species. Among the 30 descriptors used, the most distinguishing characters were related to inflorescence types, floral parts and seed traits. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed a clear demarcation between grain amaranths and other species. Close relationships were found between A. viridis, A. dubius and A. spinosus on the one hand and A. blitum, A. graecizans and A. tricolor on the other. Small-types cultivars of A. dubius were found to be closer to A. spinosus than giant-types. Species grouping were independent of accession origin which gives insight into the robustness of morphological markers. These results provided phylogenetic relationships which are inconsistent with previous infrageneric classification of amaranths and call for further investigations with a larger set of species to clarify relationships among these species and unlock their potential for crop improvement.
Morphological characterization of Amaranth germplasm
2020
To know about the phenotypic diversity of 42 accessions of amaranth (Amaranthus<br> spp), an experiment was designed in the experimental field of Plant Genetic Resources<br> Centre of BARI, Gazipur during 2016-17. The germplasm were classified on the basis of<br> their use. Among them, 6 gerrmplasm were identified as leaf amaranth and the rest 36 were<br> stem amaranth. Amaranth were also classified as hard (14.29%), medium (4.76%) and soft<br> (80.95%) on the basis of fiber. Qualitative variation was found in branching index, stem and<br> leaf pubescence, leaf shape, leaf margin, terminal inflorescence shape, terminal<br> inflorescence attitude and inflorescence density index. Different color variations were<br> exhibited in stem (green-23.81% and pink or purple-76.19%), leaf pigmentation (entire<br> lamina purple-7.14%, margin and vein pigmented-38.10%, normal green-26.19%, more<br> green shade on purple leaf-9.52%, more ...