Journal of Plant Molecular Breeding
Volume:9 Issue: 2, Summer and Autumn 2021

Yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus) is a native plant with ornamental and medicinal properties in horticulture science. 16 ecotypes of I. pseudacorus species were collected and classified into three populations based on geographical location in the current study. The genetic diversity of I. pseudacorus was assayed using 16 ISSR markers. Photosynthetic pigments, including chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoids, were measured by the spectrophotometry method. The primers generated 874 scalable bars ranging in size from 100-1200 bp. The polymorphism percentage of all primers was 100%. The primers ISSR_55 produced the most bands (234 bands in total), the highest marker index, and the highest amount of polymorphic information content (PIC). Primer ISSR-13 is in second place with a total PIC of 0.84. Also, the data obtained from the scoring tapes were analyzed by parsing the original coordinates. The analysis results showed that the first, second, and third components contained 29.88%, 21.24%, and 16.52% of the information, respectively. The results showed that genetic diversity within populations (97%) is more significant than diversity among populations (3%). The spectrophotometry results showed photosynthetic pigments obtained in the Q (Jouybar) location with the highest sunlight. Our results indicated that ISSR markers revealed the genetic relationships of Yellow flag samples for different agro-ecological adaptations. ISSR is a superb molecular tool to research the genetic variability of I. pseudacorus.

Rice is the world’s most important staple food and will continue to be so in the coming decades. Ferrous iron is essential for rice growth. A mapping population of 96 rice inbred lines derived by Neda (NAD) and Ahlemitarom (ATM) cross, was used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for fresh biomass (FB), root length (RL), shoot length (SL), root number (RN), leaf width (LW), root fresh weight (RFW), root dry weight (RDW) and Fe content (FC) under Fe toxicity condition in rice. Two parents and 96 inbred lines were evaluated for the traits by growing them under normal and Fe toxicity nutrient solution. Under stress condition, two QTLs were detected for FB on chromosome 10, with LOD of 2.859, and 2.465. Twelve QTLs were identified for RL on chromosomes 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12. Three QTLs were detected on chromosomes 6, 7, and 8 for RN, and two QTLs for RDW on chromosomes 2 and 9. One QTL controlling LW, RFW, and FC was located on chromosomes 10, 9, and 1, respectively. The other QTLs for FB, SL, and RN was located on chromosomes 12, 12, and 3 under normal condition, with respective contributions of 9.7, 10, and 9.9, respectively. qLWN-2, qLWN-7, and qLWN-12 were located for LW on chromosomes 2, 7, and 12. These QTLs, due to the high percentage of explanation after validation, are a good candidate for marker-assisted selection programs with the help of markers in the rice population.

The present study aimed to develop a protocol for root induction and evaluate the effects of salicylic acid (SA) (0, 80 and 160 mg/l) and yeast extract (YE) (0, 0.75 and 1.5 g/l) on chlorogenic acid, caftaric acid, cichoric acid, cynarin and echinacoside production in Echinacea purpurea adventitious roots. Also, the effect of NH4NO3 (0, 0.25, 0.75, 1.0 X) concentration in MS medium supplemented with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (1 and 3 mg/l) on root induction was investigated. The results showed that adventitious root induction in coneflower was significantly influenced by NH4NO3 and IAA concentrations (p≤0.01). The highest percentage of root induction (100%) and average number of roots formed on each explant (14.3 roots) was observed in 1 mg/l IAA×1/4NH4NO3 MS culture medium treatment. The main effect of SA and YE and their interaction effects with exposure time on the measured traits (except for echinacoside) was significant (p≤0.01). The result showed that application of 1.5 g/l YE and 160 mg/l SA when harvested 96 hour post-elicitation are the most effective treatments to elicit caffeic acid derivatives (CADs) content. The highest chlorogenic acid, cichoric acid, caftaric acid, and cynarin production was obtained in 160 mg/l SA at 96 hours post-elicitation that was 2.13, 1.83, 2.39 and 2.97-fold higher compared to control respectively. The heatmap diagram showed that the CADs content in SA and YE treatments was clearly separated from each other and control treatment.

Plants are important parts of our diet; which, in addition to the primary metabolites, also produce a wide range of secondary metabolites. Endophytic fungi are among these microorganisms that not only do not cause infection and disease in the host plant but also play a role in the production or increase of some secondary metabolites and defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in the plant. Yew is one of the native trees of Iran and has medicinal value and has important fungal endophytes. Isolation and characterization of endophytic fungi in this plant can be important in order to discover new species with the potential to produce taxol. This study was carried out to isolate and identify molecularly and morphologically some fungal endophytes in the laboratory. In order to investigate the presence of ITS gene in fungi, ITS5 and ITS4 specific primers were used. 81 endophytic fungi were extracted from yew seedlings and eight samples were selected for molecular tests. The results of examining the presence of the ITS showed that all the extracted fungi gave a band in the desired region. Based on molecular and morphological studies, eight strains of identified endophytic fungi belonged to the genera Purpureocillium, Akanthomyces, Fusarium, Phomopsis and Colletotrichum. Therefore, the identification of more endophytic species can help to discover useful microorganisms in the production of secondary metabolites such as taxol.

Improving plant regeneration skills in tissue culture studies is critical not only for the efficient genetic transformation of commercial crops but also for scientific reports. SNP (Sodium nitroprusside) as a Nitric oxide (NO) donor, plays an important role in the growth and development of plants. In this study, regeneration and plantlet development of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. was improved using optimized concentrations of plant growth regulators supplemented with sodium nitroprusside. According to the results, among 12 different combinations of plant growth regulators, the MS medium complemented with 2 mg L-1 BAP and 0.2 mg L-1 IAA had a maximum percentage of regeneration (84%). The highest stem length (4.6 cm) and leave number (7) were achieved on MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 BAP and 0.2 mg L-1 IAA. Adding of 10 μM sodium nitroprusside to the regeneration medium improved shoot regeneration efficiency (93%) and the number of shoots per explants (7.75). Furthermore, the maximum shoot growth mean, including stem length (11.8) and leaf number (11.2) were achieved on MS medium containing BAP (0.5 mg L-1), IAA (0.2 mg L-1), and 10 μM sodium nitroprusside. It was found that fewer adventitious roots and higher lateral roots were significantly developed in the medium containing IAA and SNP. Our findings indicated that adding SNP to the regeneration medium of L. esculentum Mill. improved shoot regeneration and plant development. This may overcome the problems in proliferation of the tomato plant.

Although plant breeding has been able to increase rice yield, the quality of cooking and eating quality is still one of the most important economic factors in rice production. In order to better understand the genetic relationships between quantitative and qualitative properties, the most important agronomic traits, physicochemical properties and storage protein characteristics in two new mutant cultivars of rice, their parents and ancestors were evaluated. The results of agronomic traits showed that two mutant cultivars Roshan and Shahriar, have the highest yield (8500 and 8000 kg/ha respectively) accompanied by desirable agronomic characteristics such as lodging resistance, early maturity period, high number of tillers and more panicle length. Evaluation of qualitative properties also showed that these two new mutant cultivars characterized by good cooking and eating properties. As Roshan, show moderate amylose content (AC) and both of them were in terms of gelatinization temperature (GT) and gel consistency (GC) similar to Sangetarom, a quality cultivar. Also, Roshan cultivar, like Sangetarom, was differentiated by the recessive allele of BADH2 gene for fragrance. On the other hand, Shahriar cultivar also showed a significant decrease for prolamin protein. In general, the results show that there is no significant relationship between agronomic characteristics and yield with grain biochemical properties, such as cooking and eating quality, fragrance and storage protein content. These results promise that by identifying and pyramiding desirable alleles, especially alleles involved in starch synthesis, fragrance and prolamin protein can be obtained rice cultivars with higher qualitative properties.