Faba bean is cultivated worldwide and widely used in Mediterranean countries, Asia and Europe. However, only a few faba bean breeders are active in cultivar development. As a result, a limited number of varieties are available for growers. Plant genetic resources or germplasm are fundamental sources for plant breeding, and the assessment of the genetic diversity among germplasm accessions is useful to facilitate more efficient use of plant genetic resources. A mini-core collection of faba bean germplasm (178 landraces and four cultivars), from diverse geographic regions of Turkey, was assessed for agro-morphological performance and some quality traits. There were substantial variations for the investigated morphological and quality characteristics. The analysis of variance revealed that the differences among 182 accessions were significant for all the studied characters. Some accessions showed very good agronomic performance for some traits. Positive and negative correlations existed among different morphological and agronomic traits. Landraces have been classified into four different groups using a cluster analysis. These results suggest that an a priori classification of accessions according to the growing area does not strictly correspond to phenotypic grouping. From the spatial distribution of landraces, however, it has been possible to identify ‘superior’ accessions of some traits. These findings indicate a number of useful traits in the gene pools and a wide range of phenotypic variation that provides a good source of diversity for use in modern faba bean breeding programmes.

Development of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) synthetics started at CIMMYT-Mexico in 2004, when winter durum wheat (Triticum turgidum) germplasm from Ukraine and Romania was crossed with Aegilops tauschii accessions from the Caspian Sea region. Chromosomes were doubled after pollination and embryo rescue, but chromosome number and cytological validation was not performed. F2 populations were grown in Mexico and were shipped to Turkey in 2008. During 2009–2015, these populations were subjected to rigorous pedigree selection under dry, cold, disease-affected environments of the Central Anatolian Plateau. The wide segregation and partial sterility observed in 2009 gradually decreased and, by 2016, most of the F8 single spike progenies demonstrated good fertility and agronomic performance. Since 2013, lines have been selected from synthetic populations and evaluated at multiple sites. Superior lines were characterized for resistance to leaf, stripe and stem rust, plant height, and reaction to common bunt and soil-borne pathogens. Thousand kernel weight of many lines exceeded 50 g, compared with the check varieties that barely reached 40 g. Threshability of synthetic lines varied from 0 to 95%, demonstrating genetic variation for this important domestication trait. Screening against Hessian fly, sunny pest and Russian wheat aphid identified several resistant genotypes. Both durum and Aegilops parents affected synthetic wheat traits. Several studies are underway to reveal the genetic diversity of synthetic lines and the basis of resistance to diseases and insects. This synthetic germplasm represents a new winter bread wheat parental pool. It is available upon request to interested breeding/research programmes.

Pennisetum purpureum Schum. (napiergrass) is a perennial grass used for forage especially in South America and Africa. Over the last 30 years, a USDA–ARS nursery containing accessions collected from all over the world has been established in Tifton, Georgia. The study reported here was conducted to assess the molecular genetic variation and genetic relatedness among 89 accessions from the Tifton nursery using amplified fragment length polymorphism markers, morphological data and ploidy level. Using 218 polymorphic markers from eight selective primer combinations, the 89 accessions were clustered into five groups using a principal components analysis and a dendrogram based on Dice similarity estimates and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average clustering. These five groups include three groups collected from Kenya, a group from Puerto Rico, and accessions derived from the cultivar Merkeron. This research provides the first molecular characterization of the Tifton nursery, displays the relationships between accessions, and provides potential heterotic groups for napiergrass and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) breeding improvement.

Genomic and proteomic diversity provide the basis of evolutionary change by natural selection under abiotic and biotic stresses, and the human-driven evolutionary process of domestication by artificial selection. Described here are some of the regional and local genomic and proteomic long-term multidisciplinary studies conducted at the Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel, during 1975–2005 (see publications at http://evolution.haifa.ac.il), involving both wild barley, Hordeum spontaneum, the progenitor of cultivated barley and wild emmer sheat, Triticum dicoccoides, the progenitor of modern tetraploid and hexaploid cultivated wheat. Wild cereals harbour large amounts of as yet untapped adaptive genetic resources for crop improvement (resistances against abiotic and biotic stresses, micronutrient metal deficiencies, storage proteins, amylases and photosynthetic yield, among others). The adaptive genomic diversity of wild cereals, including cryptic beneficial alleles at specific quantitative trait loci of T. dicoccoides and H. spontaneum is the best genomic resource to be conserved in situ and ex situ for utilization by classical and modern biotechnologies, to enrich the genetically impoverished and stress-vulnerable food cultivars, advance crop improvement, and thereby increase and optimize world food production in a second genetic green revolution.

Hydro-distilled essential oils from fruits, aerial parts (without fruits) and roots of Pimpinellaspecies native to Turkey and their phylogenetic relationships to one another were examined. Phytochemical investigation of the essential oils of 19 species resulted in isolation of 16 phenylpropanoids, four sesquiterpenes and two azulene-type norsesquiterpenes. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined primarily from 1D- and 2D-NMR experiments as well as liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Phylogenetic relationships among 26 species were evaluated using ITS 1, ITS 4 nuclear rDNA and psbA-trnH cpDNA sequences. In this study, significance and occurrence of phenylpropanoids, azulenes and geijerenes are discussed from a phylogenetic, chemical and biosynthetic perspective. The distribution of different classes of compounds and their putative associations with one another as per current knowledge of their biosynthetic pathways indicates that this information, in conjunction with the phylogeny, could provide valuable information regarding the presence and perhaps evolution of the different classes of compounds. Analysis of the phenylpropanoid components indicates that (E)-anethole is an obligatory intermediate of this pathway. The various Pimpinellaspecies differ primarily in their ability to acylate anethole, suggesting that while the pathway leading to anethole is common to this genus, species differ in their enzymatic machinery leading to acylate. The relationship between azulenes and geijerenes is not as intuitive, but all Pimpinellaspecies analysed in this study have the biochemical machinery required to synthesize these chemical classes.

Genebanks serve as a rich source of diversity that can be exploited for crop improvement. However, large numbers of accessions usually have to be evaluated to find material with the characters of interest, and therefore, enhanced trait information can facilitate the more efficient selection of accessions by users. In this study, we report on the distribution of resistances to 28 races of downy mildew among 1223 genebank accessions of cultivated lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and 14 related wild species. Due to modern plant breeding, the overall level of resistance of cultivars released after 1950 appears to have increased two- to three-fold compared with varieties from earlier periods. Although fully resistant reactions could be observed among the accessions of cultivated lettuce for each of the 28 investigated races, the resistance probability was more than two-fold higher on average for accessions from the wild gene pool. In general, species of the primary gene pool appeared less resistant than those of the secondary or tertiary gene pool. Probabilities for examined Lactuca species ranged from 0.29 for L. serriola to 1.00 for L. perennis compared with 0.19 for cultivated lettuce, with lower overall resistance probabilities observed only for L. altaica, L. dregeana and L. tenerrima. For L. serriola, the closest relative of cultivated lettuce and the wild species with the highest number of examined accessions, resistance probabilities to each of the investigated downy mildew races were relatively high for populations originating from Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.

Several molecular marker systems have been developed for assessing genetic diversity in crop germplasm collections. A trade-off often exists between the number of loci that can feasibly be sampled by a marker system and the amount of information provided by each locus. We compared the usefulness of two marker systems for revealing genetic diversity and population structure in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz): simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and diversity array technology (DArT) markers. DArTs survey many more loci per reaction than do SSRs; however, as bi-allelic, dominant markers, DArTs provide less polymorphism information per locus. Genetic differentiation was assessed in a randomly selected set of 436 cassava accessions, consisting of 155 African and 281 Latin American accessions. A genome-wide set of 36 SSR markers and a DArT array of approximately 1000 polymorphic clones were used to assess genetic diversity and differentiation. Cluster analyses were performed using principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Results were compared with a priori expectations of genetic differentiation based on previous genetic analyses. Analyses of the two datasets generated broadly similar clustering patterns. However, SSRs revealed greater differentiation than DArTs, and more effectively recovered patterns of genetic differentiation observed in previous analyses (differentiation between Latin American and African accessions, and some geographical differentiation within each of these groups). These results suggest that SSR markers, while low throughput in comparison with DArTs, are relatively better at detecting genetic differentiation in cassava germplasm collections. Nonetheless, DArTs will likely prove useful in ‘orphan crop’ species, where alternative molecular markers have not been developed.

Synthetic amphiploids between Triticum aestivum (AABBDD) landrace Chinese Spring (PhI) and cultivar WL711 with different accessions of Aegilops kotschyi (UUSlSl) were developed through colchicine treatment of sterile hybrids. The F1 hybrids and amphiploid plants were intermediate between the parents for plant morphology and spike characteristics. Meiotic metaphase chromosome analysis of the F1 hybrids (ABDUSl) showed the expected chromosome number (35) and very little but variable homoeologous chromosome pairing. The amphiploids (AABBDDUUSlSl), however, had variable frequency of univalents at meiotic metaphase-I. The SDS–PAGE of high molecular weight glutenin subunits of amphiploids along with the parents showed the presence and expression of all the parental genomes in the amphiploids. The amphiploids with seeds as large as that of wheat cultivars had higher grain, flag leaf and grain ash iron and zinc concentrations than the wheat parents and comparable with those of their Ae. kotschyi parents suggest that Ae. kotschyi possesses a distinctive genetic system for the micronutrient uptake, translocation and sequestration than the wheat cultivars. This could, however, be demonstrated unequivocally only with comprehensive data on biomass, grain yield and harvest index of the Aegilops donors and the synthetic amphiploids, which is not feasible due to their shattering and hard threshing. The use of amphiploids for the transfer of high iron and zinc concentrations and development of alien addition and substitution lines in wheat is in progress.

Dendrobium Sw., a member of the family Orchidaceae, includes approximately 1100 species distributed in different parts of the world. In China, the genus is represented by 76 species and two varieties, of which D. loddigesii, D. fimbriatum, D. chrysanthum, D. officinale (=D. candidum) and D. nobile are listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia as the source material for Herba Dendrobii (Shihu). Because of increased demand and high price, Herba Dendrobii is often adulterated in the trade by other related species. Many Dendrobium species are over-collected from the wild and are listed under endangered taxa in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Therefore, a reliable authentication method is needed to regulate the trade and help conserve the species from unscrupulous collections. This review describes the present status of using medicinal Dendrobium in China, current approaches to authenticate medicinal Dendrobium plants and Herba Dendrobii, and the efforts under way towards the development of DNA microarrays to facilitate differentiation/identification of genuine material in complex Chinese medicinal formulations.

We present here the first comprehensive genetic characterization of snapmelon landraces from the humid tropics of eastern India. The genetic diversity among 42 snapmelon landraces collected from four agro-ecological regions of eastern India (eight agro-ecological subregions) was assessed by measuring variation at 16 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci, at various traits including plant habit and fruit type, yield (two associated traits), disease resistance and biochemical composition (total soluble solids, ascorbic acid, carotenoids and titrable acidity). Differences between accessions were observed in a number of plant and fruit traits. Snapmelon germplasm with high acidity, elevated carotenoid content and resistance to cucumber mosaic virus were identified in the collection. The SSR analysis indicated that there is a high level of genetic variability within snapmelon germplasm. Comparison of the genetic variability between snapmelons of eastern India and melons from north, south and central regions of India and reference accessions of melon from Spain, France, Japan, Korea, Maldives, Iraq, Zambia, Israel using SSRs showed that Indian snapmelon germplasm is not closely related to melon accessions from other parts of the world and that there are regional differences between Indian melon accessions. Eastern India snapmelon has unique traits, so it is important that more germplasm from this region is sampled and preserved.

A chickpea collection of 1600 desi and 1400 kabuli were evaluated for yield losses arising from pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera) infestation under rainfed conditions by spraying half the plots to prevent pod borer infestation and allowing the other half to be infested. From these lines, 82 were selected for further detailed evaluation of Helicoverpa resistance and drought resistance under irrigated and rainfed conditions. The yield losses from Helicoverpa damage varied from 10 to 33% depending on the chickpea type and the growing environment. Spreading types were more susceptible to Helicoverpa damage than erect types, as were kabuli types compared to desi types. Yield losses due to Helicoverpa infestation were always greater in the irrigated than in the rainfed materials. Terminal drought reduced yields by 13–37% depending on plant type. The yields in the kabuli c“hickpea lines were more severely reduced than were the desi types, due to a greater reduction in the number of branches and pods per plant in the kabuli compared to the desi lines. It appears that the extent of pod borer damage varies between the chickpea types, and that desi types have greater drought resistance than kabuli ones. These characteristics should be informative for the population improvement of chickpea for environments in which terminal drought and Helicoverpa damage occur frequently.

The composition of essential oils obtained from leaves of Acorus calamus growing wild in 19 different locations was analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. In total, 84 constituents have been identified, representing at least 86% of the total essential oil. The essential oils were dominated by the presence of phenolic compounds: (Z)-asarone (15.7–25.5%) and (Z)-methyl isoeugenol (2.0–4.9%). Other identified major components were (E)-caryophyllene, α-humulene, germacrene, linalool, camphor and isoborneol. All oils were found to have a similar composition. However, a hierarchical cluster analysis of the quantitative data revealed significant differences between some accessions. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of four selected leaf essential oils were determined by a screening test with the broth dilution method. Of the 17 species of fungi, bacteria and yeasts tested, Mycobacterium ssp. and Bacillus subtilis were most susceptible to essential oils. Oils displayed low anti-fungal activity and their inhibitory activity was lower than the standard antibiotics. Oils differed in their activities against the various microorganisms tested.

Safflower is a multi-purpose oilseed crop, primarily known for good quality oil containing highest polyunsaturated fatty acid content (>80%) among edible oils. In this study, a core subset of 148 safflower accessions representing 15 countries, predominantly of Indian origin, was evaluated for agronomic traits and characterized for genetic diversity, population structure and linkage disequilibrium (LD) using 44 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci across 11 linkage groups to enable its utilization in breeding and genetic mapping purposes. The collection had substantial variation for seed yield-related traits. SSR allelic variation was low as indicated by average number of alleles (3.6) per locus, gene diversity (0.314) and polymorphism information content (0.284). Cluster analysis (neighbour-joining tree) revealed five major genotypic groups with very low bootstrap support. STRUCTURE analysis showed recognizable population structure; based on membership coefficients ( ≥ 0.75), 52% accessions were classified into four populations (K= 4) and the remaining 48% accessions into admixture group. High Fst values (0.30–0.48) suggested that the populations were substantially differentiated. Analysis of molecular variance results showed that maximum of genetic variation (85%) was explained between individuals within the population suggesting that the population structure was only weak. About 1.9% of SSR locus pairs were in LD, which appeared to be low. High phenotypic variation, mild population structure and low level of LD among unlinked loci suggested that the core subset can be explored for association mapping of seed yield components in safflower.

Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.) is a dioecious vegetatively propagated tuber crop. It is widely cultivated by traditional techniques in West Africa, its area of origin. The genetic diversity of 146 accessions from Benin was analysed using 10 polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) nuclear markers and agromorphological traits. An average of 8.4 alleles per locus was detected. The mean heterozygosity was 0.57 and the mean polymorphism information content (PIC) for polymorphic markers was 0.51. Some cultivars (23%) were found to have an identical genotype for the 10 markers. The structure of the genetic diversity observed in Benin is the result of farmers' crop management practices and their know-how. The cultivar diversity had a geographical component. We also noted major differentiation between early and late cultivars, with higher diversity in the early ones. Cultivars from northern Benin and early cultivars had the greatest allelic richness. SSR markers proved to be powerful tools for fingerprinting each cultivar and analysing their genetic relationships. The results of this study could be useful for defining a strategy for the conservation of genetic diversity in yams.

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) is an ideal crop for changing climate and food habits of peoples due to its short duration, high photosynthetic efficiency, nutritional richness and fair resistance to pest and diseases. However, foxtail millet yields are low mainly due to the lack of effort for its improvement and the lack of proper utilization of existing genetic variability. To enhance the use of diverse germplasm in breeding programmes, a core collection in foxtail millet consisting of 155 accessions was established. Core collection accessions were fingerprinted using 84 markers (81 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and three Expressed Sequence Tag (EST)-SSRs). Our results showed the presence of greater molecular diversity in the foxtail millet core collection. The 84 markers detected a total of 1356 alleles with an average of 16.14 alleles (4–35) per locus. Of these, 368 were rare alleles, 906 common alleles and 82 the most frequent alleles. Sixty-one unique alleles that were specific to a particular accession and useful for germplasm identification were also detected. In this study, the genetic diversity of foxtail millet was fairly correlated well with racial classification, and the race Indica showed a greater genetic distance from the races Maxima and Moharia. The pairwise estimate of dissimilarity was >0.50 except in 123 out of 11,935 pairs which indicated a greater genetic variability. Two hundred and fifty pairs of genetically most diverse accessions were identified. This large molecular variation observed in the core collection could be utilized effectively by breeders or researchers for the selection of diverse parents for breeding cultivars and the development of mapping populations.

The present study was undertaken to examine the population structure of the Solanum pimpinellifolium collection maintained by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center – and to construct a core set of this collection. Out of the entire collection of 322 accessions, a diverse subset of 190 accessions was chosen representing 14 countries of origin. Data on 32 qualitative and 22 quantitative phenotypic traits (IPGRI–AVRDC descriptor traits) and 48 simple sequence repeat markers evenly distributed over the genome were used to develop the core set. A total of 377 alleles were detected with 7.85 alleles per locus, on average. Of these, 52 alleles at 28 loci were extremely rare-frequency alleles. The 190 accessions clustered into two main populations and an admixture group. Population I (PopI) included 99 accessions, 93 of which originated from Peru. Population II (PopII) contained 49 accessions, the majority of which originated from Ecuador and Mexico. The remaining 42 accessions were classified as admixture group. The two main populations were further subdivided into five subgroups. Values of Fst among the five sub-populations were significant (average pairwise Fst of 0.296), suggesting a real difference between these populations. A clear differentiation was observed among and within populations based on geography. Peruvian accessions were genetically more diverse than accessions originating in Ecuador and Mexico. Within the Peruvian group, a gradual increase in genetic diversity was observed from southern to northern Peru. The constructed core collection consists of 75 accessions representing 23.4% of AVRDC's entire S. pimpinellifolium collection and 39.5% of the subset used in this study. It is a well-balanced core with a good representation of the different populations (31 accessions from PopI, 22 from PopII and 22 from the Admixture group) and geographic origins (40 accessions from Peru, 17 from Ecuador, 14 from Mexico and four from other countries).

Target region amplification polymorphism markers were used to assess the genetic diversity and relationship among 151 worldwide collected faba bean (Vicia faba L.) entries (137 accessions maintained at the USDA–ARS, Pullman, WA, 2 commercial varieties and 12 elite cultivars and advanced breeding lines obtained from Link of Georg-August University, Germany). Twelve primer combinations (six sets of polymerase chain reaction) amplified a total of 221 markers, of which 122 (55.2%) were polymorphic and could discriminate all the 151 entries. A high level of polymorphism was revealed among the accessions with an estimated average pairwise similarity of 63.2%, ranging from 36.9 to 90.2%. Cluster analysis divided the 151 accessions into five major groups with 2–101 entries each and revealed a substantial association between the molecular diversity and the geographic origin. All 101 accessions in Group V are originated from China and 13 of the 15 accessions in Group II were from Afghanistan. Thirty-two individual plants were sampled from two entries to assess the intra-accession variation. It was found that the advanced inbred line (Hiverna/5-EP1) had very little variation (5.0%), while the original collection (PI 577746) possessed a very high amount of variation (47.1%). This is consistent with the previous reports that faba bean landraces have a high level of outcrossing in production fields and thus contain larger amount variation within each landrace. One implication of this observation for germplasm management is that a relatively larger population is needed in regeneration to mitigate the possible loss of genetic variation due to genetic drift.

This article focuses on advances in both basic and applied research on soybean germplasm resources collected from China and dispersed to the world. Many landraces developed over the course of the 4500 years since its domestication in the Huangdi period. Systematic germplasm collection was begun in the early 20th century by Professor Shou Wang, and since then over 170,000 accessions have been conserved worldwide. Evaluation with respect to key morphological characteristics, pest resistance, abiotic stress tolerance and nutritional quality attributes has been widely carried out. In addition, genetic diversity has been assessed at the DNA level, and used to establish core collections for both cultivated (Glycine max) and wild (Glycine soja) soybean. Some core sets have targeted the most used parental lines, and others have focused on specific traits, such as resistance to the soybean cyst nematode or to soybean mosaic virus, or enhanced phosphorus use efficiency. The recent acquisition of the soybean genome sequence should accelerate the utilization of not only the Chinese soybean germplasm collection, but also those maintained elsewhere in the world.

The improvement of quality and quantitative traits in industrial crops is among the most important goals in plant breeding. Many traits of interest are controlled by multiple genes and improvements have so far only been obtained through conventional breeding. The use of biotechnological tools to modify quantitative traits is highly challenging. CropDesign has developed TraitMill™, an automated plant evaluation platform allowing high-throughput testing of the effect of plant-based transgenes on agronomically valuable traits in crop plants. The focus of the platform is currently on rice, a good model for other important cereals such as maize and wheat. TraitMill™ offers a high-throughput prediction of gene function. Genes of validated function that confer trait improvement can then be transferred to other cereal crop species such as maize, but also to dicots, trees and ornamentals. TraitMill™ involves the following key components: (i) selection of candidate trait improvement genes among genes involved in signal transduction, cell cycle control, transcription, nutrient metabolism, etc.; (ii) a suite of validated constitutive or tissue-specific promoters from rice allowing for the selection of the most appropriate promoter–gene combination in view of the desired trait improvement; (iii) an industrialized plant transformation system generating tens of thousands of transgenic plants annually; and (iv) a robotized trait evaluation set-up for plant evaluation, proprietary image analysis software for measuring plant performance parameters and statistical analysis of results.

Bacterial blight (BB) of rice is a widespread disease in tropical Asia, contained largely through the deployment of race-specific resistance genes. Although more than 25 BB resistance genes have been identified, none are effective individually against all the pathotypes prevalent in north-western India. The response of a set of 327 accessions of 13 wild Oryza species and cultivated African rice, O. glaberrima, was evaluated to infection with seven pathotypes of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae over a period of 3–4 years. Of these, 67 were resistant or moderately resistant to all pathotypes. These comprised 13 accessions of O. glaberrima, 5 of O. barthii, 10 of O. rufipogon, 4 of O. longistaminata, 22 of O. nivara, 6 of O. officinalis, 2 of O. rhizomatis and 5 of O. minuta. Inheritance studies, molecular mapping and transfer of some of these genes into O. sativa ssp. indica are in progress.