Abstract
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) and other members of Saccharum spp. are attractive biofuel feedstocks. One of the two World Collections of Sugarcane and Related Grasses (WCSRG) is in Miami, FL. This WCSRG has 1002 accessions, presumably with valuable alleles for biomass, other important agronomic traits, and stress resistance. However, the WCSRG has not been fully exploited by breeders due to its lack of characterization and unmanageable population. In order to optimize the use of this genetic resource, we aim to 1) genotypically evaluate all the 1002 accessions to understand its genetic diversity and population structure and 2) form a core collection, which captures most of the genetic diversity in the WCSRG. We screened 36 microsatellite markers on 1002 genotypes and recorded 209 alleles. Genetic diversity of the WCSRG ranged from 0 to 0.5 with an average of 0.304. The population structure analysis and principal coordinate analysis revealed three clusters with all S. spontaneum in one cluster, S. officinarum and S. hybrids in the second cluster and mostly non-Saccharum spp. in the third cluster. A core collection of 300 accessions was identified which captured the maximum genetic diversity of the entire WCSRG which can be further exploited for sugarcane and energy cane breeding. Sugarcane and energy cane breeders can effectively utilize this core collection for cultivar improvement. Further, the core collection can provide resources for forming an association panel to evaluate the traits of agronomic and commercial importance.
Highlights
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a perennial grass, belonging to the Poaceae family and Andropogoneae tribe, which is grown widely in tropical and subtropical regions
To screen World Collection of Sugarcane and Related Grasses’’ (WCSRG), 36 Simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers with high polymorphic information content (PIC) values were selected to genotype each accession in the WCSRG
In order to compare the results of both platforms, some labeled primers screened by the ABI 3730 were checked on the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) platform and the results were comparable in terms of molecular weight of the amplicons
Summary
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a perennial grass, belonging to the Poaceae family and Andropogoneae tribe, which is grown widely in tropical and subtropical regions. It is the highest yielding crop worldwide [1] and accounts for approximately 75% of the world sugar production [2,3]. Besides sucrose-based ethanol production, which replaces 30% of the gasoline consumed in Brazil [7], sugarcane lignocellulosic biomass-based ethanol is an increasingly attractive biofuel to supplement fossil fuels.
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