Kahraman Gürcan

A study of genetic diversity in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] population, and implication for the historical origins on bottle gourds in Turkey

Bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] is one of the oldest cultivated plants, native to Africa and it distributed to over the World. Its dispersal route from Africa to America and Asia is still subject of studies. Similarly, when and how bottle gourd entered into Turkey is not known. In previous studies, bottle gourd germplasm collecting activities were undertaken in the country and the germplasm were analyzed morphologically. Here we report molecular analysis of 60 Turkish bottle gourds along with 31 diverse exotic accessions. Eighth Simple Sequence Repeats and two chloroplast loci of 91 accessions were analyzed. Capillary electrophoresis was used for DNA size fragman separation. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 13, with a mean of 7. Mean values for expected heterozygosity, observed heterozgosity, and polymorphism information averaged 0.5, 0.13 and 0.50, respectively, thereby sugguesting very low (0.13) genetic diversity in a very diverse population. An unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram was constructed, Indian accessions clearly separated from the rest. Among the remaining samples, neither Turkish landraces grouped together based on their georgraphic origin, nor clear speration occurred according to origin continent. Interestingly, this co-dominant marker analysis shows close molecular allelic profile among bottle gourds originated from far different countries.

Genetic Diversity in Apricot

Apricot is a fruit species adopted to a wide geographical areas (De Poerderle, 1788; Loudon, 1838; Arakelyan, 1968; Mehlenbacher et al. 1991; Huxley, 1992; Butner, 2001). 173 years ago, Loudon (1838) was first to mention that wild apricots with different shades of pink flowers had been used as ornamental purpose for centuries. Nowadays commercial production areas of apricots are still very limited with a small number of varieties, although they spread across a wide area all over the world. Looking at the statistics, the production value has been observed to show upward trend by years. This increase in production is closely related with breeding studies in different countries. Breeding programs were modified generally according to consumer’s demands and also some subjects such as resistance to diseases (Sharka, Monilinia etc.) and frost damages, determination of self-(in)compatibility.

Genetic diversity in Astragalus argaeus, a critically endangered species from Turkey

Astragalus argaeus is critically endangered endemic species growing only on Erciyes Mountain in Kayseri. Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were chosen to detect the genetic diversity in four populations of A. argaeus. Ten primers were used to assess the diversity among 96 genotypes collected from the four localities in Erciyes Mountain. A total of 78 bands were scored, of which 44 (55.8%) were polymorphic. The unweighted pair group method arithmetic average (UPGMA) and principle component analysis (PCoA) showed moderate genetic diversity at the species and population level. The percentages of polymorphic bands (PPB) ranged from 53.8 to 61.5 (58.01% ± 3.2) and average gene diversity (h) at the population and species level was estimated to be 0.17 and 0.23, respectively. The Shannon’s information index (SI) ranged from 0.24 to 0.29 at the population level and was 0.35 at the species level. The determined gene flow (Nm) was 1.83. The UPGMA tree indicated that the four populations were not genetically distinct obviously. In analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), the percentage of the variance was 38.72% among populations and 61.28% within populations. The data which small population size, habitat fragmentation and moderate levels of genetic diversity demonstrate that A. argaeus possess threat of extinction if its narrow habitat is destroyed.

Molecular and agro-morphological characterization of ancient wheat landraces of turkey

BackgroundTurkey is one of the important gene centers for many crop species. In this research, some ancient wheats such as tetraploid and diploid hulled wheats together with hexaploid tir wheats (Triticum aestivum ssp. leucospermum Korn.) landraces mainly adapted to harsh winter conditions of Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey were characterized at agro-morphological and molecular level. Totally 50 hulled wheat population from Kastamonu, Konya and Kayseri provinces and 15 tir wheats from Kars provinces of Turkey were in-situ collected for characterization in 2013. Some quantitative and qualitative traits of each population were determined.ResultsTwenty three hulled wheat population collected from Kastamonu province were distinguished into nine emmer and 14 einkorn wheats at morphological level. Additionally, Konya, Kayseri and Kars population were characterized as einkorn, emmer and tir wheat, respectively. Among the evaluated traits, protein ratios of hulled wheats were strikingly higher than registered cultivars. All the populations were also examined by molecular level by using fluorescently labelled 11 polymorphic SSRs primers. The primers exhibited 104 bands, ranging from 6 to 16 with a mean value 9.45 per loci. The clustering analysis separated the germplasm into two clusters which were also divided into two subclusters based on genetic similarity coefficient. Sixty-five population and five checks were analyzed to estimate mean number of alleles (N), expected and observed heterozygoties (He and Ho), polymorphism information content (PIC), Wright fix index (F), genetic deviation from Hardy-Weinberg expectation (Fit-Fis) and genetic variation (Fst) were determined as 9.45, 0.71, 0.07, 0.67, 0.90, 0.39, 0.87 and 0.39, respectively. A clear genetic deviation from Hardy – Weinberg expectation was observed among population in particular. These results showed considerable genetic variation among landraces rather than within population.ConclusionsThese molecular information has revealed genetically diverse einkorn, emmer wheat and tir wheat population could be used as parents for further breeding studies in both Turkey and abroad. Furthermore, the molecular analysis has also generally discriminated the germplasm into ploidy level.