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Morphological and molecular divergence in ornamental variants of cactus which may be useful to generate new variants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2023

Andréa Florindo das Neves
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Comparative Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil
Claudete Aparecida Mangolin
Affiliation:
Department of Biotechnology Genetics and Cellular Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil
Vanessa Neves de Azevedo Fernandes
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Genetics and Breeding, State University of Maringá, 87020-900 Maringá, PR, Brazil
Eliane Rodrigues Monteiro
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Genetics and Breeding, State University of Maringá, 87020-900 Maringá, PR, Brazil
Maria de Fátima P. S. Machado*
Affiliation:
Department of Biotechnology Genetics and Cellular Biology, State University of Maringá, Maringá, PR, Brazil
*
Author for correspondence: Maria de Fátima P. S. Machado, E-mail: mfpsmachado@uem.br
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Abstract

Although morphological plasticity has been widely known in various cactus genera, few studies have investigated the origin and molecular relationship between morphological variants from cacti. Morphological variants are relevant specimens because atypical, exotic and generally unique forms are preferred by cactus traders and collectors. The current study investigates the molecular relationship between the tortuosus and monstruosus ornamental variants of Cereus peruvianus used in landscapes. Polymorphisms in loci of simple-sequence repeats in DNA were used as molecular markers. The variants tortuosus and monstruosus, and plants with typically columnar and erect shoots cultivated in southern Brazil were retrieved from public parks and home gardens. High polymorphism, an indicative of vegetative propagation, and a moderate genetic divergence were detected at the molecular level in monstruosus and tortuosus plants. Artificial selection and vegetative propagation of the ornamental variants of Cereus may be inducing a moderate genetic divergence and formation of two heterologous groups with conservative genetic diversity. Polymorphism in Cereus variants revealed groups with contrasting genes among the variants tortuosus and monstruosus which may be useful for breeding to generate new and different new variants.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of NIAB
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Plants of the C. peruvianus cactus with erect shoots and plants of the variants monstruosus (a) and tortuosus (b) growing in home gardens in urban areas of Paraná state (south region, Brazil).

Figure 1

Table 1. Number of alleles (Na) and number of effective alleles (Ne) per polymorphic SSR locus

Figure 2

Fig. 2. Dendrogram generated by Nei's coefficient from analysis of individual plants of the variants erect, monstruosus and tortuosus of C. peruvianus constructed from seven microsatellite primers (Pchi47, AaB6, AaD9, AaH11, mAbR28, mAbR86 and mEgR78) data using the adegenet package from R Development Core Team (2019). Number beside node indicates relative bootstrap frequency (%).

Figure 3

Fig. 3. Three-dimensional projection obtained for plants of the variants erect (red), monstruosus (blue) and tortuosus (green) of C. peruvianus constructed from seven microsatellite primers (Pchi47, AaB6, AaD9, AaH11, mAbR28, mAbR86 and mEgR78) data.

Figure 4

Fig. 4. Bar plot-like population structure based on microsatellite markers for plants of the Cereus genus with erect shoots and for the variants tortuosus and monstruosus within the K clusters. Each plant is represented by a single vertical bar broken in K coloured segments (K = 3), with lengths proportional to each of the K inferred clusters. Each colour represents the proportion of DNA segments for each plant, represented by a vertical bar, in each group.

Figure 5

Table 2. Proportion of the 92 phenotypic variants of the C. peruvianus in each group (K = 3) analysed using STRUCTURE software 2.0

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Table S1

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