محمدجعفر آقایی

Genetic diversity of coriander is very important for future breeding programs and genetic resource conservation. To evaluate genetic diversity and population structures, 20 populations of coriander collected from different regions of Iran were assessed using 10 ISSR markers. The markers generated a total of 111 bands in the studied populations of which 80 bands were polymorphic. The average polymorphism ranged from 0.2 to 0.35 per primer. To determine the efficiency of ISSR markers, their polymorphic information content (PIC) and polymorphic percentage were calculated. The average polymorphism was 72.2 percent among the assessed population. Primers P2 showed the best marker parameters and were identified as the most effective primers for assessing genetic diversity in Iranian coriander populations. Cluster analysis based on the Jaccard coefficient by UPGMA classified populations into three groups. According to the results, there is a high genetic diversity among Iranian coriander and ISSR can effectively differentiate the populations. This genetic diversity could be employed by the plant breeders in further breeding programs to introduce new varieties and improve conservation strategies as well.

Coriander is one of the important medicinal plants in the world which has been used widely in medicinal, cosmetic and health care industries.

In order to investigate the genetic diversity of this plant in Iran, 20 Coriander populations were collected from different parts of the country and evaluated out using randomized complete block design with three replications in Karaj Vegetable Research Center of Horticultural Sciences Research Institute in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 crop years. During the growth period, the phenological, morphological and physiological characteristics were recorded. Days to generation, Largest basal leaf length, Basal leaf number, Days to full flowering, Days to Maturity, Plant height, Umbel number per plant, Fertile umbel number per plant, Unfertile umbel number per plant, Umbellate number per umbel, Seed number per umbel, thousand seed weight, Grain yeild per plant, Biomass per plant, Harvest index per plant, Grain yield, Biomass and Harvest index traits were investigated. Data were analyzed using SAS and SPSS software and for Grouping of the population, the cluster analysis was performed by Ward’s method and factor analysis was done using the Variomax rotation method.

According to the results of analysis of variance, there were significant differences between the studied populations in terms of most traits include the largest basal leaf length, basal leaf number, plant height, umbel number per plant, fertile umbel number per plant, unfertile umbel number per plant, umbellate number per umbel, grain number per umbel, 1000-seed weight, seed weight per plant, biomass per plant, harvest index per plant, grain yield, biomass and harvest index. Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were high for most of the traits which indicated the high diversity of these traits in the studied populations. The heritability in broad-sense of the traits largest basal leaf length, basal leaf number, plant height, umbel number per plant, fertile umbel number per plant, umbellate number per umbel, seed number per umbel, 1000-seed weight, seed weight per plant, biomass per plant, harvest index per plant, grain yield, biomass and harvest index were high, which makes the response to the selection of these traits expected in breeding programs. Cluster analysis classified 20 studied populations into five groups.

According to the results, the Kermanshah population had the highest grain yield in two years. The higher yield of this populaion was due to having the highest number of umbels per plant, number of fertile umbels, number of umbels per umbel and weight of 1000 seeds. Also, the traits of the length of the longest basal leaf, the number of basal leaves, the number of umbels per plant, the number of fertile umbels per plant, the number of umbels per umbel, the number of seeds per umbel, the weight of 1000 seeds, the yield of seeds per plant, the biomass of a single plant, the harvest index of a single plant, seed yield, biomass and harvest index had high heritability, which indicates the high role of genetic factors and the low influence of environmental factors on the control of these traits.

The present study evaluates the morphological characteristics of leaves and seeds to more easily identify the species of Carpinus betulus, C. schuschaensis and C. orientalis. Morphological and physiological characteristics are always influenced by climatic and ecological factors; hornbeam trees also change in their appearance due to their wide distribution, which makes it a little difficult to quickly identify the species. For the conservation and basic management of habitats of this species, accurate identification of species, recognition of ecological needs, and study of its genetic diversity seems useful.

Sampling of hornbeam leaves and seedlings from two regions of Kordkoy, Derazno and Neka, Hezar Jarib was done randomly from 5 individuals of Carpinus betulus, C. schuschaensis and C. orientalis species that were at least 100 meters apart. Morphological traits studied in leaf was as follows: leaf length (AL), leaf width (WL), distance from the widest part of the leaf to the base (WPL), number of teeth (NT), beak length (DB), beak width (WB), number of teeth in 2 cm (NT 2cm), maximum leaf width (MWL), petiole length (PL), number of veins (VN), width in 0.1 leaf length (W0.1), width at 0.9 leaf length (W0.9), leaf area (LA), the ratio of leaf length to leaf width -leaf shape(LS), the ratio of leaf length to the widest part of the leaf to the base (AL/WPL), the ratio of the widest part of the leaf to the base to the length of the petiole (WPL/PL). Also, the morphological traits in seeds were including total weight of seeds (TW), outer shell weight (WS), seed kernel weight (BW), seed length (A), and seed width (W). Traits were measured on a case-by-case basis using calipers and rulers, as well as seed weight using a digital scale with an accuracy of 0.001. Nest statistical design, Duncan test, and principal component analysis (PCA) were used. The distribution of tree trunks in the coordinate axis space, Discriminant analysis, and cluster analysis were also evaluated.

The results of analysis of variance indicated that among the populations, all studied parameters except NT, MWL, TW and BW traits were significantly different from each other. The results of PCA indicate that in seeds 66.7% of the variances in the first component and in leaves 96.69% of the variances in the first four components are justified. The results of cluster analysis showed that the three populations were divided into three separate groups (clusters). The results of diagnostic analysis showed that NT 2cm, PL, LS, AL / WPL, TW, WS and BW are the distinguishing traits of the three species.

In terms of simple identification, hornbeam seeds do not differ significantly in terms of dimensions, but in terms of leaves, Carpinus betulus are the largest, C. orientalis is the smallest and C. schuschaensis species is intermediate species. Morphological studies of this study confirm the independence of Carpinus betulus, C. schuschaensis and C. orientalis species due to complete separation of traits. However, it may be possible that C. schuschaensis to be a hybrid.

Genetic diversity is the basis of plant breeding that allows selection and improvement of plants with desirable traits and characteristics. Aegilops spp. is one of the wild relatives of bread wheat and has a large distribution in the Middle East and West Asia, that Iran covering a large part of this region. In this study, 75 accessions of Aegilops triuncialis species, stored in the National Genetic Bank of Iran, were evaluated for the diversity of high molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS) using SDS-PAGE method. Generally 10 protein bands in 20 different patterns were observed among the samples. The highest band frequency was for bands h and i with frequency of 0.93 and the least frequency was related to band k with frequency of 0.026 that was observed only in Qazvin and Golestan provinces. The highest corrected genetic variation (uh) was observed in Markazi province (0.4) and the least corrected genetic variation was for Kurdistan province (0.13). The genetic distance matrix of the provinces based on Nei index showed that the highest distance was between Golestan and North Khorasan provinces with West Azarbaijan province, and the lowest genetic distances observed between Khorasan Razavi and Semnan provinces as well as North Khorasan and Mazandaran provinces. Cluster analysis using UPGMA method divides the studied provinces into three groups. There was a clear logical relationship between genetic diversity and geographical variation.

One of the constraints in development of cowpea cultivation in growing areas of this crop is soil salinity. In order to investigate the effect of salinity on germination and seedling growth of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), an experiment was conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design with 4 replications. The study was carried out June 2013 at the genetic and gene nation bank laboratory of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran. Treatments were including of 4 levels of salinity (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM), 15 genotypes of cowpea (mashhad, omid bakhsh1, omid bakhsh 2, 001, 002, 7245, 7254, 7262, 7288, 7244, 7256, 7291, 7289, 7278 and 7305). The results showed that the effects of genotypes and salinity levels on different measured traits were significant at 5% probability level. Germination under saline conditions gave significant reductions for each treatment tested. The interaction effects of genotype and salinity, cultivar Mashhad in 150 mM NaCl salinity had the highest final germination percentage (84 %) and vigor germination (8.1). Also, the highest and lowest germination rate in high salinity (150 mM NaCl) had obtained in 7291 (5.3 seed per dar) and omid bakhsh 2 (3.7 seed per dar) cultivar, respectively. Increasing NaCl applications generally decreased the fresh and dry weight of Plumule and fresh and dry weight radicle. In high salinity level (150 mM NaCl), the highest of fresh and dry weight of Plumule had obtained in cultivar Mashhad (0.76 and 0.995 gr). Decrease in Plumule and radicle weight by NaCl application is due to increase in osmotic pressure of soil and decrease in availability of soil water because of NaCl Genotypes mashhad and 001 in NaCl salinity were evaluated as the most resistant and susceptible genotypes, respectively. Based on the results of this experiment, there is necessary genetic diversity among the Cowpea genotypes of Iran for selection of salinity resistant cultivars.

This study was conducted in order to evaluate and compare the morphological traits of species leaflet, genotypes and inter-species hybrids of walnut tree in the Research Center of Kamal-Shahr, Karaj, Iran, Horticultural Research station, Seed and Plant Improvement Institute. Morphological characteristics are one of the first and most widely used markers that have always been considered by botanists in the past. In this regard, morphological traits of leaf have a special place in the classification of plants. The importance of morphological characteristics is such an extent that the study of them can be helpful to process genetic diversity in plants. Using these markers, species and even clones within a species can be distinguished from one another.

Evaluation of traits from following genotypes was performed with sampling in the summer from the leaves that were grown fully: eight genotypes of black walnut (N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N6, N7, N8), seven cultivars / genotypes of Iranian walnut (Seer Damavand, Jamal, Chandler, Hartley, Pedro, Ronde de Montignac, B21 and K72), five genotypes of inter-specific hybrids (J. hindsii × J. nigra) and four genotypes of inter-specific hybrids (J. hindsii × J. regia) and a genotype of J. hindsii species. In total, 14 traits were evaluated including 7 quantitative traits (length and width of leaves (a and b), leaf width (e), leaflet length (f), petiole length (c), number and leaf area) and 7 qualitative traits (shape of the leaflet, leaf edge, leaf and petiole color, time of opening leaf bud, having wool, time of falling leaf and main petiole durability).

The results indicated that there was much morphological diversity among above species and hybrids. Statistical results showed that this species can be distinguished with selected traits.

The highest leaf area was belonged to B21 genotype of Iranian walnut species with 336.3 cm2 and the lowest leaf area was measured for N8 genotype of black walnut with 76.2 cm2. The average of quantitative traits for leaf samples showed that Iranian walnut cultivars had the maximum mean of leaf length and width and black walnut had the minimum length and width of leaf. The mean of maximum width and length of leaflet was observed in Iranian walnut and the lowest leaflet width was observed in paradox (J. hindsii x J. regia) inter-specific hybrid. The minimum of leaflet length were measured in black walnut. Among the evaluated species, the minimum and maximum number of leaflets was achieved in Iranian walnut and J. hindsii species, respectively. Genotypes were studied and grouped using cluster analysis and based on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of leaves. The genotypes were separated into three distinct clusters. The first cluster includes: six different genotypes of Black Walnut, J. hindsii species and inter-specific hybrids of Royal and paradox, a second cluster includes the cultivar of Iranian walnut and third cluster includes (B21) genotypes of Iranian walnuts.

One of the constraints in development of cowpea cultivation in growing areas of this crop is soil salinity. Soil salinity is a major factor limiting plant productivity, affecting about 95 million hectares worldwide. The UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) estimates that 20% of the agricultural land and 50% of the crop land in the world is salt-stressed (Othman et al, 2006). One of the most important problems in the semi-arid and arid regions is the salinity. In the rainy regions, the salt in the soil is washed by rain and reaches into underground water. Because of that, the salinity is not a problem in the rainy regions while it is not possible that the salt in the soil cannot be washed and it cannot reach the underground water in the semi-arid and arid regions. In these regions, the salt in the soil is collected in the ground water and it is carried towards surface of the soil by ground water movement. Other important reasons for soil salinity are the quality of irrigation water, irregular irrigation, and excessive fertilizer applications (Turkmen et al, 2000). Seed germination is an important and vulnerable stage in the life cycle of terrestrial angiosperms and determines seedling establishment and plant growth. Salinity affects seed germination through osmotic effects, ion toxicity or a combination of the two. In vegetative plants, salt stress causes reduced cell turgor and depressed rates of root and leaf elongation, suggesting that environmental salinity acts primarily on water uptake. Furthermore, high intracellular concentrations of both Na+ and Cl- can inhibit the metabolism of dividing and expanding cells, retarding germination and even leading to seed death (Zhang et al, 2010). The purpose of this research was to study the effects of salt stress on cowpea genotypes seed germination and seedling growth.

In order to investigate the effect of salinity on germination and seedling growth of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), an experiment was conducted as factorial based on completely randomized design with 4 replications. The study was carried out June 2013 at the genetic and gene nation bank laboratory of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran. Treatments were including of 4 levels of salinity (0, 50, 100 and 150 mM), 15 genotypes of cowpea (Mashhad, Omid bakhsh1, Omid bakhsh 2, 001, 002, 7245, 7254, 7262, 7288, 7244, 7256, 7291, 7289, 7278 and 7305). Four replicates of 6 seeds per Petri dish were used for each treatment. Petri dishes were randomly distributed in temperature controlled incubators (25C; 12-12 hours). The number of seeds germinated in each dish was counted daily for a period of 14 days. Seed were considered germinated when the radical attained a length of 2 mm. Germination percentage, index germination, vigor index germination, germination rate, Plumule dry weight, Plumule fresh weight, radical dry weight and radical fresh weight were estimated at germination and seedling stage. Data were statistically analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVA) using the MSTAT-C program. Duncan multiple range test was used to compare means at the 5% level.

The results showed that the effects of genotypes and salinity levels on different measured traits were significant at 5% probability level. Germination under saline conditions gave significant reductions for each treatment tested. The interaction effects of genotype and salinity, Mashhad and 7262 cultivars in 150 mM NaCl salinity had the highest final germination percentage (100 %) and 001 genotype had lowest final germination percentage (38.88 %). Also, the highest vigor germination in high salinity (150 mM NaCl) had obtained in Mashhad genotype and with increasing salinity fresh and dry weight of pulumle and radical were increased. Increasing NaCl applications generally decreased the fresh and dry weight of Plumule and fresh and dry weight radical. Mashhad and 7262 genotypes were evaluated as the most resistant and 001 genotype as susceptible genotypes, respectively. Cluster analysis of data showed genotypes categories in three cluster and 001 genotype and Omid bakhsh 2 was placed in separate group and rest of genotypes in another cluster. Based on the results of this experiment, there is necessary genetic diversity among the Cowpea genotypes of Iran for selection of salinity resistant cultivars.

To study breeding resource of Kabuli chickpea lines of National Plant Gene Bank of Iran، two separate experiments were conducted during 2010 and 2011. In this study، 57 lines of Kabuli type chickpeas- selected from primary evaluation experiments، out of 1500 accessions were planted at farm of Seed and Plant Improvement Research Institute in Karaj، Iran، according a randomized complete block design with three replications. All 57 lines were evaluated for different morphological and agronomical traits. Results showed high diversity for most of traits among accessions. Combined analysis of variance showed significant differences for years، genotypes and year × genotype interaction. Principal Coordinte Analysis resulted to four premier factors contributed around 85% of variations. Growth habit، number of flower and pod in plant، seed color، seed black dots and testa texture had higher coefficients in the first factor which contributed 59% of total variation. The yield components such as flowering duration، number of flower and pod in plant، number of pod per plant and number of seeds per pod showed high genetic diversity (21. 58، 24. 88، 52. 51، and 27. 01 respectively)، and high heritabilities (93. 49، 66. 67، 94. 72، and 82. 86 respectively). So، these traits are suggested as most important indices for selection of superior chickpea line in breeding programs.

To evaluate the diversity of the collection of Aegilops umbellulata, cytogenetic characteristics of 96 accessions of the collection of Ae. umbellulata obtained from National Plant Gene Bank of Iran were studied by flow-cytometry and cytogenetic. Flow cytometry studies showed that ploidy level of the accessions were diploid. Cytogenetic studies, confirmed the results of flow cytometry. In other words the basic chromosome number of the accessions was X=7. Comparing the results of flow cytometry and karyotypic studies, direct relationship between DNA content and chromosome length was confirmed. The studied accessions contained symmetrical karyotypes with metacentric and submetacentric chromosomes. Satellites were also observed on all of the studied karyotypes. Average coefficient of variation of the accessions was 13.15. Therefore, karyotypic and flow cytometry studies revealed intra- population variation in the species. Thus, given the wide dispersal of Ae. umbellulata in Iran, diversity and evolutionary history of a species were shown in the country.