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Genetic diversity among melon accessions (Cucumis melo) from Turkey based on SSR markers.

Melon (Cucumis melo) is an important vegetable crop in Turkey, where it is grown in many regions; the most widely planted lines are local winter types belonging to the var. inodorous. We examined 81 melon genotypes collected from different provinces of Turkey, compared with 15 reference melon genotypes obtained from INRA/France, to determine genetic diversity among Turkish melons. Twenty polymorphic primers were used to generate the SSR markers. PCR amplification was performed and electrophoresis was conducted. SSR data were used to generate a binary matrix. For cluster analysis, UPGMA was employed to construct a clustering dendrogram based on the genetic distance matrix. The cophenetic correlation was compared with the similarity matrix using the Mantel matrix correspondence test to evaluate the representativeness of the dendrogram. A total of 123 alleles were amplified using the 20 SSR primer sets. The number of alleles detected by a single primer set ranged from 2 to 12, with an average of 6.15. The similarity ranged from 0.22 to 1.00 in the dendrogram developed from microsatellite analysis. Based on this molecular data, we concluded that genetic diversity among these Turkish accessions is relatively high.

Gelling agents and culture vessels affect in vitro multiplication of banana plantlets

Agar is the most commonly used gelling agent in media for plant tissue culture. Because of the high price of tissue-culture-grade agar, attempts have been made to identify suitable alternatives. The type of culture vessel and lid also affects the gaseous composition inside the vessel as well as light penetration. In turn, the vessel affects growth parameters, such as shoot elongation, proliferation and fresh weight, as well as hyperhydric degradation processes. We examined the effects of different culture vessels, including commercial glass jars, magenta boxes, and disposable containers, as well as different gelling agents (agar-agar, Agargel, Phytagel, and plant agar) on the micropropagation of Dwarf Cavendish bananas in an effort to find a combination that yields large numbers of high-quality seedlings. The different culture vessels did not significantly affect seedling culture success. The medium significantly affected shoot weight. Phytagel resulted in the highest shoot weight (overall mean = 2.4 g), while agar, Agargel and plant agar resulted in 1.7, 2.2 and 2.2 g, respectively. Disposable container/Phytagel and Magenta/Agargel combinations yielded the highest shoot weights (2.9 and 3.0 g, respectively). Mean shoot length increased progressively with subculture (four subcultures were made). The highest mean shoot length was obtained with Phytagel and Agargel media (6.4 and 6.3 cm, respectively). Shoot number was significantly affected by medium only at subculture 4. Overall, the highest mean shoot length was obtained with the Magenta/Agargel combination (8.5 cm). Phytagel and plant agar gave higher mean shoot number than agar and Agargel (2.1, 2.1 and 1.7 and 1.9, respectively). The costs of the media and of the culture vessels need to be taken into account for final choice of the banana shoot culture system.

Genetic Transformation in Citrus

Citrus is one of the worlds important fruit crops. Recently, citrus molecular genetics and biotechnology work have been accelerated in the world. Genetic transformation, a biotechnological tool, allows the release of improved cultivars with desirable characteristics in a shorter period of time and therefore may be useful in citrus breeding programs. Citrus transformation has now been achieved in a number of laboratories by various methods. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is used mainly in citrus transformation studies. Particle bombardment, electroporation, A. rhizogenes, and a new method called RNA interference are used in citrus transformation studies in addition to A. tumefaciens. In this review, we illustrate how different gene transformation methods can be employed in different citrus species.

Relationships among Crataegus accessions sampled from Hatay, Turkey, as assessed by fruit characteristics and RAPD

The genus Crataegus known as hawthorns, is the largest genus among the Maloideae, which comprises 265 species. Turkey is one of the genetic centers of Crataegus and there are more than 20 species found in Turkey. The fruits of Crataegus are used as food and have high flavonoid, vitamin C, glycoside, anthocyanidin, saponin, tannin, and antioxidant levels. In this study, we attempted to characterize 15 Crataegus accessions sampled from Hatay, located in Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. The accessions belonged to several species; C. aronia (L.) DC. var. aronia, C. aronia var. dentata Browicz, C. aronia var. minuta Browicz, C. monogyna Jacq. subsp. azarella (Griseb.) Franco, and C. orientalis Pall. ex M. Bieb. var. orientalis. Fruit characteristics of the accessions exhibited considerable variation. The multivariate, principle component and cluster analyses indicated that the accessions belonged to three groups: (1) C. aronia var. arona accessions; (2) C. aronia var. dentata accessions; and, (3) C. monogyna subsp. azarella and C. orientalis var. orientalis accessions. The principle component analysis results also revealed that the first three components explained 46, 21, and 14% of the variation, comprising a total of 81%. The fruit length and width, leaf area, and soluble solids contents were highly correlated characteristics for the first three components. The 19 RAPD primers generated a total of 107 bands, where 76 of these were polymorphic. The molecular data analyses by principle coordinate and clustering showed similar results to those of pomological characteristics. There were three groups, (1) C. aronia var. arona accessions; (2) C. aronia var. dentata accession; and, (3) C. monogyna subsp. azarella. C. orientalis var. orientalis accession grouped with C. aronia var. arona accessions. Therefore, it can be concluded that, overall, the diversity patterns of pomological and molecular data, generated by RAPD, for Crataegus are in good agreement and the accessions of C. aronia var. aronia, C. aronia var. minuta, C. monogyna subsp. azarella and C. orientalis var. orientalis accessions.

Peroxidase gene-based estimation of genetic relationships and population structure among Citrus spp. and their relatives

Many stress-related interactions such as pathogen infection, insect tolerance, salt tolerance, auxin degradation, cell wall lignification, tissue suberization, and plant senescence involve various isoforms of peroxidases. Peroxidase gene polymorphism (POGP) markers have been used to estimate diversity, relationships and population structure among 80 Citrus and their relatives in Aurantioideae by using unweighted pair group method arithmetic average (UPGMA) and bayesian substructuring analysis. Fourteen primers produced a total of 148 fragments and 147 of them were polymorphic. The UPGMA analysis demonstrated that the accessions had a similarity range from 0.27 to 0.98 and were distinguished. The results of this study were mostly consistent with previous reports of different marker systems, but few different findings were also detected. The subtribe Clauseninae (tribe Clauseneae) did not clearly separate from the subtribes of the tribe Citreae. Substructuring analysis indicated that there were six subpopulations among the accessions studied. This study revealed that the POGP markers can be utilized to estimate genetic diversity, relationships and population structure in Citrus and related species in the Aurantioideae subfamily.

Genetic Characterization of Turkish Snake Melon (Cucumis melo L. subsp. melo flexuosus Group) Accessions Revealed by SSR Markers

Snake melon is an important cucurbit crop especially in the Southeastern and the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is consumed as fresh or pickled. The production is mainly done with the local landraces in the country. Turkey is one of the secondary diversification centers of melon and possesses valuable genetic resources which have different morphological characteristics in case of snake melon. Genetic diversity of snake melon genotypes collected from different regions of Turkey and reference genotypes obtained from World Melon Gene Bank in Avignon-France was examined using 13 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 69 alleles were detected, with an average of 5.31 alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content of SSR markers ranged from 0.19 to 0.57 (average 0.38). Based on cluster analysis, two major groups were defined. The first major group included only one accession (61), while the rest of all accessions grouped in the second major group and separated into different sub-clusters. Based on SSR markers, cluster analysis indicated that considerably high genetic variability exists among the examined accessions; however, Turkish snake melon accessions were grouped together with the reference snake melon accessions.

Erratum to: Molecular Characterization of Cyclamen Species Collected from Different Parts of Turkey by RAPD and SRAP Markers.

The genus Cyclamen (family Myrsinaceae) contains about 20 species, most of which occur in the Mediterranean region. Turkey has critically important Cyclamen genetic resources. Molecular characterization of plant materials collected from different regions of Turkey in which Cyclamen species grow naturally, namely Adana, Antalya, Aydin, Mugla, Izmir, Denizli, Kahramanmaras, Osmaniye, Eskisehir, Trabzon, and Rize provinces, was performed using RAPD and SRAP markers. DNA was successfully amplified by 30 RAPD primers and 14 SRAP primer pairs. Among the 470 bands generated by the RAPD primers, 467 were polymorphic. The number of bands detected by a single primer set ranged from 11 to 22 (average of 15.6). The percentage polymorphism was 99.3 % based on the RAPD data. In the SRAP analysis, a total of 216 bands were generated, showing 100 % polymorphism. The number of bands detected by a single primer set ranged from 9 to 22 (average of 15.4). All data were scored and UPGMA dendrograms were constructed with similar results in both marker systems, i.e., different species from nine provinces of Turkey were separated from each other in the dendrograms with the same species being clustered together.

Micropropagation of Banana

Banana (Musa spp. AAA) is propagated vegetatively and can be rapidly and efficiently propagated by micropropagation. Conventional micropropagation techniques, however, may be too costly for commercial purposes. Our laboratory has found that depending on the combination of culture vessel and gelling agent more economic methods can be chosen for successfully micropropagating banana.

An Overview of In Vitro Haploid Plant Production in Citrus

The main objectives of Citrus breeding are to have new varieties with a shorter juvenile non-fruiting period, an increased yield, a longer ripening season, regular fruit bearing, seedlessness and improved external and internal quality of the fruits. To make available new scions and rootstocks selected for resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses is another important aim in Citrus improvement. Citrus breeding is based either on conventional methods (hybridization, selection, mutation) or biotechnological methods employing in vitro tissue culture, regeneration from protoplasts, somatic hybridization, in vitro mutant selection, genetic transformation and haploid production. An integrated approach between innovative and conventional tools is fundamental to obtaining large improvements in a short time. Haploid plants have some advantages for the plant breeding because of their one set of chromosomes, identified recessive mutations and reducing the breeding time. There are several methods to produce haploid plants such as androgenesis and gynogenesis. The pollen and microsphore cultures are used for androgenesis. The ovule and ovary culture are used for the gynogenesis. In this review we describe the principals of the haploid plant cultures and we illustrated some haploid studies in citrus.

In Vitro Culture of Turkish Origanum sipyleum L.

Origanum sipyleum L. is a species that is endemic to Turkey with known medicinal and aromatic properties and with a long historical use in Turkish folk medicine. Micropropagation serves as one possible method to clone and protect O. sipyleum . In this study, nodes, which served as the explants, were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with different concentrations of BA (0.1, 0.5, 1.0 mgL -1 ) and GA 3 (0.1, 0.2 mgL -1 ). Shoots were transferred to MS medium containing different concentrations of IBA (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 mgL -1 ) for root induction. Shoot regeneration, rooting, survival and acclimatization were possible. As many as 85% of nodes formed an average of 6 shoots/node on MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mgL -1 BA and 0.2 mgL -1 GA 3 . Rooting was most successful in 62.5% of shoots on MS medium with 1.5 or 2.5 mgL -1 IBA. Plantlets derived from all IBA combinations were transferred to autoclaved peat and perlite (1:1, v/v) and acclimatized in a greenhouse, with 79.1% survival. This protocol represents the first comprehensive in vitro regeneration protocol for endemic (Turkish) O. sipyleum .