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Turkey presents a great diversity of common bean landraces in farmers’ fields. We collected 183 common bean accessions from 19 different Turkish geographic regions and 5 scarlet runner bean accessions to investigate their genetic diversity and population structure using phenotypic information (growth habit, and seed weight, flower color, bracteole shape and size, pod shape and leaf shape and color), geographic provenance and 12,557 silicoDArT markers. A total of 24.14% markers were found novel. For the entire population (188 accessions), the expected heterozygosity was 0.078 and overall gene diversity, Fst and Fis were 0.14, 0.55 and 1, respectively. Using marker information, model-based structure, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) algorithms clustered the 188 accessions into two main populations A (predominant) and B, and 5 unclassified genotypes, representing 3 meaningful heterotic groups for breeding purposes. Phenotypic information clearly distinguished these populations; population A and B, respectively, were bigger (>40g/100 seeds) and smaller (<40g/100 seeds) seed-sized. The unclassified population was pure and only contained climbing genotypes with 100 seed weight 2–3 times greater than populations A and B. Clustering was mainly based on A: seed weight, B: growth habit, C: geographical provinces and D: flower color. Mean kinship was generally low, but population B was more diverse than population A. Overall, a useful level of gene and genotypic diversity was observed in this work and can be used by the scientific community in breeding efforts to develop superior common bean strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a multipurpose crop of dry land yielding very high quality of edible oil. Present study was aimed to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of 131 safflower accessions originating from 28 different countries using 13 iPBS-retrotransposon markers. A total of 295 iPBS bands were observed among which 275 (93.22%) were found polymorphic. Mean Polymorphism information content (0.48) and diversity parameters including mean effective number of alleles (1.33), mean Shannon’s information index (0.33), overall gene diversity (0.19), Fstatistic (0.21), and inbreeding coefficient (1.00) reflected the presence of sufficient amount of genetic diversity in the studied plant materials. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that more than 40% of genetic variation was derived from populations. Model-based structure, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) algorithms clustered the 131 safflower accessions into four main populations A, B, C, D and an unclassified population, with no meaningful geographical origin. Most diverse accessions originated from Asian countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Turkey, and India. Four accessions, Turkey3, Afghanistan4, Afghanistan2, and Pakistan24 were found most genetically distant and might be recommended as a candidate parents for breeding purposes. The findings of this study are most probably supported by the seven similarity centers hypothesis of safflower. This is a first study to explore the genetic diversity and population structure in safflower accessions using the iPBS-retrotransposon markers. The information provided in this work will therefore be helpful for scientists interested in safflower breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcription factors are regulatory proteins known to modulate gene expression. These are the critical component of signaling pathways and help in mitigating various developmental and stress responses. Among them, bZIP, BBR, and BZR transcription factor families are well known to play a crucial role in regulating growth, development, and defense responses. However, limited data is available on these transcription factors in Triticum aestivum. In this study, bZIP, BBR, and BZR sequences from Brachypodium distachyon, Oryza sativa, Oryza barthii, Oryza brachyantha, T. aestivum, Triticum urartu, Sorghum bicolor, Zea mays were retrieved, and dendrograms were constructed to analyze the evolutionary relatedness among them. The sequences clustered into one group indicated a degree of evolutionary correlation highlighting the common lineage of cereal grains. This analysis also exhibited that these genes were highly conserved among studied monocots emphasizing their common ancestry. Furthermore, these transcription factor genes were evaluated for envisaging conserved motifs, gene structure, and subcellular localization in T. aestivum. This comprehensive computational analysis has provided an insight into transcription factor evolution that can also be useful in developing approaches for future functional characterization of these genes in T. aestivum. Furthermore, the data generated can be beneficial in future for genetic manipulation of economically important plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until now, little attention has been paid to the geographic distribution and evaluation of genetic diversity of durum wheat from the Central Fertile Crescent (modern-day Turkey and Syria). Turkey and Syria are considered as primary centers of wheat diversity, and thousands of locally adapted wheat landraces are still present in the farmers’ small fields. We planned this study to evaluate the genetic diversity of durum wheat landraces from the Central Fertile Crescent by genotyping based on DArTseq and SNP analysis. A total of 39,568 DArTseq and 20,661 SNP markers were used to characterize the genetic characteristic of 91 durum wheat land races. Clustering based on Neighbor joining analysis, principal coordinate as well as Bayesian model implemented in structure, clearly showed that the grouping pattern is not associated with the geographical distribution of the durum wheat due to the mixing of the Turkish and Syrian landraces. Significant correlation between DArTseq and SNP markers was observed in the Mantel test. However, we detected a non-significant relationship between geographical coordinates and DArTseq (r = -0.085) and SNP (r = -0.039) loci. These results showed that unconscious farmer selection and lack of the commercial varieties might have resulted in the exchange of genetic material and this was apparent in the genetic structure of durum wheat in Turkey and Syria. The genomic characterization presented here is an essential step towards a future exploitation of the available durum wheat genetic resources in genomic and breeding programs. The results of this study have also depicted a clear insight about the genetic diversity of wheat accessions from the Central Fertile Crescent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]