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The codling moth (CM), Cydia pomonella (L.), is among the economically important pests of pome fruits. This moth causes tremendous crop losses worldwide annually. In the current study, 210 larvae from apple, pear, quince, and walnut orchards were collected from seven locations in Zanjan province, Iran. Four CM-specific microsatellite DNA loci, including Cyd10, Cyd11, Cyd12, and Cyd13, were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). According to the results, the CM population sampled from quince showed the highest number of alleles per locus with the mean observed and effective allele numbers 1.75 and 1.51, respectively. The latter shows the number of alleles with equal frequencies that contributed the most to the observed heterozygosity. Also, the mean observed and expected heterozygosity for this population was 0.508 and 0.258, respectively. The increased observed heterozygosity confirms that the selection acts in favor of heterozygote genotypes. Large genetic distances were detected between the CMpopulation from quince and the populations sampled from the other host plants, the largest between quince and walnut populations. Further, among-population diversity contributed the most to the insect’s genetic diversity, which was 89%. Moreover, some of the populations had a deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p < 0.001). While Cyd13 locus was more polymorphic than the other tested loci, Cyd11 locus was monomorphic. These findings reveal genetic variation in C. pomonella, collected from various fruit trees, indicating differences in some phenotypes noteworthy in integrated pest management.
 

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The objectives of the study were to investigate the genetic relationships of sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] genotypes, acquired from different origins and to evaluate the genetic relations among them,using eight SSR markers. A high level of polymorphism was found, with an average of 7.5 alleles per SSR locus. High average values of Shannon’s information index (0.864) and expected heterozygosity (0.739) revealed high level of genetic diversity of the Sweetpotato genotypes. Favorable applicability and informativity of selected set of SSR markers was confirmed by high global polymorphic information content (0.690) and low probability of genotype identity (1.4×10^-8). The overall fixation index was negative (-0.562), reflecting excess of heterozygosity, due to negative assortative selection as a consequence of vegetative propagation of sweetpotato. Estimation of Rst based on AMOVA shows 23% of molecular variance; the first two coordinates of PCoA cumulatively explaining 62.33% of genetic variability. The assignment of individual genotypes into three genetic groups is highly concordant with the PCoA and Bayesian approach in Structure analysis. Our results suggest that selection and breeding can also improve genetic potential and increase genetic uniformity in sweetpotato. Evaluation of genetic background and relationships among and within genotypes provided baseline data for introduction, management, production and conservation of sweetpotato germplasm, regarding its favorable consumer acceptance in Central Europe.

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Witches' broom disease of lime caused by 'Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia' is considered as one of the most destructive disease of Mexican lime in southern Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. The causative phytoplasma is vectored by a leafhopper, Hishimonus phycitis (Distant, 1908). Six ISSR markers and mitochondorial Cytochrome c Oxidase I (COI) gene were used to unveil genetic variation of the leafhopper populations from thirteen different regions of Iran. Analysis of ISSR markers revealed that Forg (Fars) and Qale'e Qazi (Hormozgan) significantly diverged from the other populations. However, the COI sequences were highly conserved among all populations and resided all the populations in a single clade. Mantel test exhibited no correlation between genetic and geographical distances. Our results demonstrated genetic differentiations among the H. phycitis populations, which might have been induced by ecological or geographical isolation and may affect the vectoring capability of this insect.
 

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A new and optimized protocol, here called 6hDNA (i.e. a genomic DNA obtained by a six-hour extraction method), has been developed based on the traditional Cetyl-TrimethylAmmonium Bromide (CTAB) method. It allows a fast and easy isolation of genomic DNA from plant species, especially from those with high polyphenol and polysaccharide contents. Co-precipitation of polysaccharides was avoided by adding higher concentrations of selective precipitants of nucleic acid, CTAB 3% (w/v) and sodium chloride (NaCl) (1.42M). PolyVinylPyrrolidone (PVP) 1% (w/v) was applied to remove polyphenols as PCR inhibitors. Proteins were degraded by treatments of chloroform:isoamyl alchol (24:1) and phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alchol (25:24:1) and removed by centrifugation from plant extracts. The yield of total DNA from leaves of Vitis vinifera, Citrus sinensis and Olea europaea ranged from 42 to 980 ng µL^-1 with A260/A280 ratio values between 1.6 and 2.06. The purity and integrity of the obtained DNA guarantees successful downstream applications including PCR and microsatellite markers. The use of lyophilized plant material and the reduced time of the total procedure make this new 6hDNA protocol more convenient when compared to the most common DNA isolation protocols, such as: “Doyle and Doyle”, “Lodhi”, “Li”, or those using the DNAzol reagent and the Nucleospin Plant Minikit.
 

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Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important dual-purpose crop in drought and famine prone areas as it is used as human food as well as livestock feed and fodder. However, the variation for forage quality traits of grass pea remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to characterize the genetic diversity of grass pea collections from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and identify genotypes for superior agronomic and forage nutritional quality traits. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components from nutritional quality parameters viz., NDF, ADF, cellulose, lignin and ash percent, and from agronomic traits viz., plant height, nodes per plant, leaf area, green and dry biomass accounted for the majority of the total variation. In addition, a total of 59 polymorphic alleles were detected at 11 SSR loci with an average of 5.36 alleles per locus and the polymorphic information content ranged from 0.49 to 0.76. Three accessions (IF1872, IF2177 and IF2156) with higher biomass than the check and four accessions (IF1327, IF1312, IL-10-76 and IF1307) with excellent nutritive value in both green forage as well as straw were identified. The present study revealed high genetic variation for biomass and nutritional quality traits in grass pea collections that could be useful for development of high-yielding, nutritionally rich, and dual-purpose varieties.