Abstract
For more than 50 years, the CIAM-AGACAL (Agricultural Research Centre of Mabegondo, Xunta de Galicia, A Coruña, Spain) has been carrying out the important task of conserving the phytogenetic resources of ecotypes and natural populations of grassland species from northwestern Spain. The CIAM-AGACAL’s germplasm bank has 57 populations of red clover (Trifolium pratense Lam.), one of the most cultivated forage legumes in the world. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the diversity among cultivars and natural clover populations at morphological and molecular level. Twelve polymorphic SSR loci revealed 241 microsatellite alleles with an average of 20.08 alleles per locus. Two main groups were detected by the Structure software, one of them including local populations and the second clustering cultivars and related populations. Intra-specific variability was found among cultivars and natural populations. A moderate genetic differentiation of Spanish red clover cultivars was observed (Fst = 0.08) between the two main clusters. Finally, a certain relationship between phenotypic and genotypic variation was detected.
Highlights
Red clover (Trifolium pratense Lam.) is native to southeastern Europe, appears spontaneously in almost all the Iberian Peninsula and is cultivated as a forage species, firstly in northern Europe and later worldwide as one of the most used mowing legumes in temperate climates [1]
There is interest in characterizing the natural populations of clovers preserved in the germplasm bank of CIAM for their possible use for the creation of commercial varieties with a native genetic base that is better adapted to Galician edaphoclimatic conditions
SSRs used in this study showed higher genetic variation than other studies on red clover, with double the average number of alleles per locus than in red clover in the Ukraine [20] and red clover populations from the NPGS-USDA core collection [21]
Summary
Red clover (Trifolium pratense Lam.) is native to southeastern Europe, appears spontaneously in almost all the Iberian Peninsula and is cultivated as a forage species, firstly in northern Europe and later worldwide as one of the most used mowing legumes in temperate climates [1]. In Galicia, the main use of red clover is by mowing and it can be supplied green or preserved as silage or hay. It can be grazed even though trampling by cattle can damage the crown and affect its persistence. There is interest in characterizing the natural populations of clovers preserved in the germplasm bank of CIAM for their possible use for the creation of commercial varieties with a native genetic base that is better adapted to Galician edaphoclimatic conditions. The germplasm bank of prairie grasses of the CIAM-AGACAL
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