ABSTRACT
The production and consumption of soybeans are widespread due to their nutritional and industrial value. Nutrient enrichment is vital for improving the nutritional quality of soybeans. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of foliar application of amino acids (AA) and zinc (Zn) on agronomic traits and the accumulation of grain Zn in soybeans. The experimental design comprised 16 treatment combinations involving four levels of amino acid application (0, 50, 100, and 150 ml 100 L-1) and Zn (0, 2, 4, and 6 mg L-1) following a randomized complete block design with three replications in field conditions. The results demonstrated that the application of foliar Zn and AA did not affect the yield, whereas that of AA50*Zn2 and AA150*Zn2 affected the number of pods and branches. The effects of AA application on N and the protein content in grains were determined to be significant. The application of AA100*Zn6 emerged as the most effective treatment for the enhancement of Zn biofortification in soybean grains. The combined foliar application of AA and Zn contributed to enhanced Zn accumulation in the grains.
ABSTRACT
Sorghum is an important but arguably undervalued cereal crop, grown in large areas in Asia and Africa due to its natural resilience to drought and heat. There is growing demand for sweet sorghum as a source of bioethanol as well as food and feed. The improvement of bioenergy-related traits directly affects bioethanol production from sweet sorghum; therefore, understanding the genetic basis of these traits would enable new cultivars to be developed for bioenergy production. In order to reveal the genetic architecture behind bioenergy-related traits, we generated an F2 population from a cross between sweet sorghum cv. 'Erdurmus' and grain sorghum cv. 'Ogretmenoglu'. This was used to construct a genetic map from SNPs discovered by double-digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq). F3 lines derived from each F2 individual were phenotyped for bioenergy-related traits in two different locations and their genotypes were analyzed with the SNPs to identify QTL regions. On chromosomes 1, 7, and 9, three major plant height (PH) QTLs (qPH1.1, qPH7.1, and qPH9.1) were identified, with phenotypic variation explained (PVE) ranging from 10.8 to 34.8%. One major QTL (qPJ6.1) on chromosome 6 was associated with the plant juice trait (PJ) and explained 35.2% of its phenotypic variation. For fresh biomass weight (FBW), four major QTLs (qFBW1.1, qFBW6.1, qFBW7.1, and qFBW9.1) were determined on chromosomes 1, 6, 7, and 9, which explained 12.3, 14.5, 10.6, and 11.9% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. Moreover, two minor QTLs (qBX3.1 and qBX7.1) of Brix (BX) were mapped on chromosomes 3 and 7, explaining 8.6 and 9.7% of the phenotypic variation, respectively. The QTLs in two clusters (qPH7.1/qBX7.1 and qPH7.1/qFBW7.1) overlapped for PH, FBW and BX. The QTL, qFBW6.1, has not been previously reported. In addition, eight SNPs were converted into cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS) markers, which can be easily detected by agarose gel electrophoresis. These QTLs and molecular markers can be used for pyramiding and marker-assisted selection studies in sorghum, to develop advanced lines that include desirable bioenergy-related traits.
ABSTRACT
The development and validation of different types of molecular markers is crucial to conducting marker-assisted sesame breeding. Insertion-deletion (InDel) markers are highly polymorphic and suitable for low-cost gel-based genotyping. From this perspective, this study aimed to discover and develop InDel markers through bioinformatic analysis of double digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRADSeq) data from 95 accessions belonging to the Mediterranean sesame core collection. Bioinformatic analysis indicated the presence of 7477 InDel positions genome wide. Deletions accounted for 61% of the InDels and short deletions (1-2 bp) were the most abundant type (94.9%). On average, InDels of at least 2 bp in length had a frequency of 2.99 InDels/Mb. The 86 InDel sites having length ≥8 bp were detected in genome-wide analysis. These regions can be used for the development of InDel markers considering low-cost genotyping with agarose gels. In order to validate these InDels, a total of 38 InDel regions were selected and primers were successfully amplified. About 13% of these InDels were in the coding sequences (CDSs) and in the 3'- and 5'- untranslated regions (UTRs). Furthermore, the efficiencies of these 16 InDel markers were assessed on 32 sesame accessions. The polymorphic information content (PIC) of these 16 markers ranged from 0.06 to 0.62 (average: 0.33). These results demonstrated the success of InDel identification and marker development for sesame with the use of ddRADSeq data. These agarose-resolvable InDel markers are expected to be useful for sesame breeders.
ABSTRACT
Aphids are one of the devastating pests affecting the productivity of sorghum in many countries. The aim of the present investigation was to identify sweet sorghum genotypes resistant to the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner). A Sequence Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) marker linked to an aphid-resistance gene (RMES1) was first used to prescreen for resistant genotypes in 561 sorghum accessions. Molecular assays indicated that 91 sorghum accessions in the collection had the RMES1 resistance marker allele. Of those, 26 agronomically superior sweet sorghum accessions, along with three commercial cultivars and one susceptible check, were further evaluated in two locations (Antalya, a lowland province, and Konya, a highland province) under field conditions. These accessions were scored for resistance to aphid damage under natural aphid infestations. The number of aphids counted on the plant leaves and stalks in the accessions during the growing seasons was used to score resistant genotypes on a scale of 1-5, where 1 was highly resistant (plants having 0-50 aphids/plant) and 5 was highly sensitive (plants having 1000 + aphids/plant). Fumagine intensity on the leaves was also taken into consideration. Ten accessions from the lowland and one accession from the highland scored "1," indicating a high resistance to aphid infestation. A further 13 accessions scored "1" or "2" in both environments. Only two accessions scored "4," and no accession scored "5," indicating the utility of the RMES1 marker for prescreening purposes. One accession, BSS507, showed outstanding resistance to M. sacchari, with a score of "1" in both environments.
