Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:20:19.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Morphological and phenological consequences of ex situ conservation of natural populations of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Svein O Solberg*
Affiliation:
Nordic Genetic Resource Center, Box 41 3, 230 53, Alnarp, Sweden
Flemming Yndgaard
Affiliation:
Nordic Genetic Resource Center, Box 41 3, 230 53, Alnarp, Sweden
Anna Palmè
Affiliation:
Nordic Genetic Resource Center, Box 41 3, 230 53, Alnarp, Sweden
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sveinsolberg63@gmail.com

Abstract

Ex situ seed banks provide an effective conservation and utilization system for crops and their wild relatives. Efforts are made to reduce genetic drift in conservation, where regeneration is a critical step. In the present study, we examined eight wild populations of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) according to 13 morphological and phenological traits. Samples of original collected seed were grown and compared with plants from first and second ex situ generation, with commercial cultivars and landraces being included for purposes of comparison. Variance analysis and Tukey multiple comparisons of means showed that the commercial cultivars and landraces were clearly distinct from the wild populations and were excluded from the further analysis. Despite the fact that the wild accessions were collected from a geographically delimited region in Norway, they exhibited significant differences in several of the measured traits. The main phenotypic patterns remain after ex situ regenerations. However, the mean values for four of the examined traits (across accessions) did change significantly from one generation to the next. Two of the eight accessions had significantly changed from one generation to the next, a tendency was observed across all the studied traits. The results were discussed in terms of regeneration circumstances. Observed changes appeared to be directional, going from populations with predominantly wild morphological types towards plants more closely resembling the commercial cultivars. Such a directional change implies that selection or gene flow has been acting on the accessions during regeneration, rather than random changes owing to genetic drift.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abberton, MT and Marshall, AH (2005) Progress in breeding perennial clovers for temperate agriculture. Journal of Agricultural Science 143: 117135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allard, RW (1999) Principles of Plant Breeding. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Andrianasolo, DN, Davis, AP, Razafinarivo, NJ, Hamon, S, Rakotomalala, JJ, Sabatier, SA and Hamon, P (2013) High genetic diversity of in situ and ex situ populations of Madagascan coffee species: further implications for the management of coffee genetic resources. Tree Genetics & Genomes 9: 12951312.Google Scholar
Asci, OO (2011) Biodiversity in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) collected from Turkey. I. Morpho-agronomic properties. African Journal of Biotechnology 10: 1407314079.Google Scholar
Ashton, TS (1948) The Industrial Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, JD, Robertson, LD and Cocks, PS (2002) Genotype × environment interaction for yield and other plant attributes among undomesticated Mediterranean Vicia species. Euphytica 126: 421435.Google Scholar
Boller, B, Willner, E, Marum, P, Maggioni, L and Lipman, E (2007) Report of a Working Group on Forages, Ninth Meeting 23–25 October 2007. Rome: Bioversity International.Google Scholar
Brown, AHD, Brubaker, CL and Grace, JP (1997) Regeneration of germplasm samples: wild versus cultivated plant species. Crop Science 37: 713.Google Scholar
Bruns, HA (2012) Concepts in crop rotations. In: Aflakpui, G (ed.) Agricultural Science. Rijeka, Croatia: Intech Publishers, pp. 2548.Google Scholar
Christie, C, Kozlowski, G, Frey, D, Fazan, L, Betrisey, S, Pirintsos, S, Gratzfeld, J and Naciri, Y (2014) Do living ex situ collections capture the genetic variation of wild populations? A molecular analysis of two relict tree species Zelkova abelica and Zelkova carpinifolia . Biodiversity Conservation 23: 29452959.Google Scholar
Copeland, LO and McDonald, MD (1995) Seed Science and Technology, 3rd edn. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Crawley, MJ (2013) The R Book, 2nd edn. The Atrium, Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Google Scholar
Crossa, J, Hernandez, CM, Bretting, P, Eberhart, SA and Taba, S (1993) Statistical genetic considerations for maintaining germ plasm collections. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 86: 673678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dittbrenner, A, Hensen, I and Wesche, K (2005) Genetic structure and random amplified polymorphic DNA diversity of the rapidly declining Angelica palustris (Apiaceae) in Eastern Germany in relation to population size and seed production. Plant Species Biology 20: 191200.Google Scholar
Ellstrand, NC and Elam, DR (1993) Population genetic consequences of small population size: implications for plant conservation. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 24: 217242.Google Scholar
Everitt, B and Hothorn, T (2011) An Introduction to Applied Multivariate Analysis with R. New York/Dordrecht/Heidelberg/London: Springer.Google Scholar
Falconer, DS and Mackay, TFC (1996) Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd.Google Scholar
FAO(2014) Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Fjellheim, S, Blomlie, AB, Marum, P and Rognli, OA (2007) Phenotypic variation in local population and cultivars of meadow fescue – potential for improving cultivars by utilizing wild germplasm. Plant Breeding 126: 279286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankham, R (1996) Relationship of genetic variation to population size in wildlife. Conservation Biology 10: 15001508.Google Scholar
GBIF(2014) The global biodiversity information facility (GBIF). Available at www.gbif.org/.Google Scholar
Gomez, OJ, Blair, MW, Frankow-Lindberg, BE and Gullberg, U (2005) Comparative study of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces conserved ex situ in genebanks and in situ by farmers. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 52: 371380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, SL, Kisha, TJ, Yu, LX and Parra-Quijano, M (2014) Conserving plants in gene banks and nature: investigating complementarity with Trifolium thompsonii Morton. PLoS ONE 9: e105145.Google Scholar
Hensen, I and Oberpieler, C (2005) Effects of population size on genetic diversity and seed production in the rare Dictamnus albus (Rutaceae) in central Germany. Conservation Genetics 6: 6373.Google Scholar
Herrmann, D, Boller, B, Studer, B, Widmer, F and Kölliker, R (2008) Improving persistence in red clover: insights from QTL analysis and comparative phenotypic evaluation. Crop Science 48: 269277.Google Scholar
Hoban, S and Schlarbaum, S (2014) Optimal sampling of seeds from plant populations for ex-situ conservation of genetic biodiversity, considering realistic population structure. Biological Conservation 177: 9099.Google Scholar
Honnay, O and Jacquemyn, H (2007) Susceptibility of common and rare plant species to the genetic consequences of habitat fragmentation. Conservation Biology 21: 823831.Google Scholar
Humphreys, MO (2005) Genetic improvement of forage crops – past, present and future. Journal of Agricultural Science 143: 441448.Google Scholar
Izawa, T (2007) Adaptation of flowering-time by natural and artificial selection in Arabidopsis and rice. Journal of Experimental Botany 58: 30913097.Google Scholar
Jensen, HR, Dreiseit, A, Sadiki, M and Schoen, DJ (2012) The Red Queen and the seed bank: pathogen resistance of ex situ and in situ conserved barley. Evolutionary Applications 5: 353367.Google Scholar
Karabourniotis, G, Kyparissis, A and Manetas, Y (1993) Leaf hairs of Olea europeae protect underlying tissues against ultraviolet-B radiation damage. Environmental and Experimental Botany 33: 341345.Google Scholar
Kölliker, R, Enkerli, J and Widmer, F (2006) Characterization of novel microsatellite loci for red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) from enriched genomic libraries. Molecular Ecology Notes 6: 5053.Google Scholar
Kölliker, R, Boller, B, Majidi, M, Peter-Schmid, MKI, Bassin, S and Widmer, F (2009) Characterization and utilization of genetic resources for improvement and management of grassland species. In: Yamada, T and Spangenberg, G (eds) Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf. New York: Springer Science and Business Media, pp. 5570.Google Scholar
Leimu, R, Mutikainen, P, Koricheva, J and Fischer, M (2006) How general are positive relationships between plant population size, fitness and genetic variation? Journal of Ecology 94: 942952.Google Scholar
Leino, MW, Boström, E and Hagenblad, J (2013) Twentieth-century changes in the genetic composition of Swedish field pea metapopulations. Heredity 110: 338346.Google Scholar
Maki, Y, Matsu-Ura, M, Suginobu, K, Miyashita, Y, Hayakawa, R, Sato, H, Murakami, K and Kaneko, K (1974) Genetic shift in agronomic characteristics of the Japanese red clover cultivar ‘Sapporo’ grown from the advanced generation seed multiplied at diverse latitudes in the United States. In: Iglovikov, VG and Movsissyants, AP (eds) Proceedings of the 12th International Grassland Congress. vol III. Moscow: MIR, pp. 893900.Google Scholar
Marshall, DR and Brown, AHD (1983) Theory of forage plant collection. In: McIvor, JG and Bray, RA (eds) Genetic Resources of Forage Plants. Melbourne, Australia: CSIRO, pp. 135148.Google Scholar
Marshall, DR and Brown, AHD (1995) A basic sampling strategy: theory and practice. In: Guarino, L, Ramanathan Rao, V and Reid, R (eds) Collecting Plant Genetic Diversity: Technical Guidelines. London: Cab International, pp. 7592.Google Scholar
Martin, JH, Leonard, WH and Stamp, DL (1976) Principles of Field Crop Production. 3rd edn. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Negri, V and Tiranti, B (2010) Effectiveness of in situ and ex situ conservation of crop diversity. What a Phaseolus vulgaris L. landrace case study can tell us. Genetica 138: 985998.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ouborg, NJ, Vergeer, P and Mix, C (2006) The rough edges of the conservation genetics paradigm for plants. Journal of Ecology 94: 12331248.Google Scholar
Pagnotta, MA, Annicchiarico, P, Farina, A and Proietti, S (2011) Characterizing the molecular and morphophysiological diversity of Italian red clover. Euphytica 179: 393404.Google Scholar
Pecetti, L and Piano, E (2002) Variation in morphological and adaptive traits in subterranean clover populations from Sardinia (Italy). Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 49: 189197.Google Scholar
Pecetti, L, Romani, M, De Rosa, L, Franzini, E, Marianna, GD, Gusmeroli, F, Tosca, A, Paoletti, R and Piano, E (2008) Variation in morphology and seed production of snow clover (Trifolium pratense L. subsp. nivale (Koch) Arcang.) germplasm from the Rhaetian Alps, Italy. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 55: 939947.Google Scholar
R Core Team(2014) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available at www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Reed, DH and Frankham, R (2003) Correlation between fitness and genetic diversity. Conservation Biology 17: 230237.Google Scholar
Richards, CM, Antolin, MF, Reilley, A, Poole, J and Walters, C (2007) Capturing genetic diversity of wild populations for ex situ conservation: Texas wild rice (Zizania texana) as a model. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 54: 837848.Google Scholar
Roy, BA, Stanton, ML and Eppley, SM (1999) Effects of environmental stress on leaf hair density and consequences for selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 12: 10891103.Google Scholar
Singh, KB, Malhotra, RS and Saxena, MC (1995) Additional sources of tolerance to cold in cultivated and wild Cicer species. Crop Science 35: 14911497.Google Scholar
Soleri, D and Smith, SE (1995) Morphological and phenological comparisons of two hopi maize varieties conserved in situ and ex situ . Economical Botany 49: 5677.Google Scholar
Song, SP and Walton, PD (1975) Combining ability, genotype × environment interaction and genotypic correlations of agronomic characters in Medicago sativa L. Euphytica 24: 471481.Google Scholar
Taft, HR and Roff, DA (2012) Do bottlenecks increase additive genetic variance? Conservation Genetics 13: 333342.Google Scholar
Taylor, NL and Smith, RR (1979) Red clover breeding and genetics. Advances in Agronomy 31: 125154.Google Scholar
Tucak, M, Popovici, S, Cupici, T, Spanici, V and Meglicv, V (2013) Variation in yield, forage quality and morphological traits of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) breeding populations and cultivars. Zemdirbyste-Agriculture 100: 6370.Google Scholar
UPOV(2014) Guidelines for the Conduct of Tests for Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.). TG/5/7. The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Geneva. Available at www.upov.int/edocs/tgdocs/en.Google Scholar
Van Buskirk, J and Willi, Y (2006) The change in quantitative genetic variation with inbreeding. Evolution 60: 24282434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van de Wouw, M, Kik, C, van Hintum, T, van Treuren, R and Visser, B (2010) Genetic erosion in crops: concept, research results and challenges. Plant Genetic Resources 8: 115.Google Scholar
Van Treuren, R, Bijlsma, R, van Delden, W and Ouborg, NJ (1991) The significance of genetic erosion in the process of extinction. I. Genetic differentiation in Salvia pratensis and Scabiosa columbaria in relation to population size. Heredity 66: 181189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasiljević, S, Šurlan-Momirović, G, Katić, S and Lukić, D (2000) Correlations between photosynthetic indicators and vegetative mass yield in (Trifolium pratense L.). Plant Breeding and Seed Production 7: 121126.Google Scholar
Vertucci, CW and Roos, EE (1990) Theoretical basis of protocols for seed storage. Plant Physiology 94: 10191023.Google Scholar
Walters, C (2004) Principles for preserving germplasm in genebanks. In: Guerrant, E, Havens, K and Maunder, M (eds) Ex situ Plant Conservation: Supporting Species Survival in the Wild. Covelo, California: Island Press, pp. 442453.Google Scholar
Wexelsen, H (1965) Studies on wildgrowing populations of red clover (Trifolium pratense). Acta Agralia Fennica 107: 3043.Google Scholar
Zizumbo-Villarreal, D, Fernandez-Barrera, M, Torres-Hernandez, N and Colunga-Garcıaamarin, P (2005) Morphological variation of fruit in Mexican populations of Cocos nucifera L. (Arecaceae) under in situ and ex situ conditions. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 52: 421434.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Solberg supplementary material

Figure S1 - Image

Download Solberg supplementary material(Image)
Image 31.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Solberg supplementary material

Figure S1 - Caption

Download Solberg supplementary material(File)
File 8.6 KB
Supplementary material: File

Solberg supplementary material

Table S1

Download Solberg supplementary material(File)
File 57.9 KB