Consensus among phenotype and genotype in banana clones (Musa acuminata) from Formosa farmers and estimation of their ancestry relationship

ERMINI, J.L.; TENAGLIA, G.; PRATTA, G.R.

Rosario

Congreso; 4to Congreso Argentino de Bioinformática y Biología Computacional; 2013

A2B2C

Banana is one of the most popular fruits in the world. As a polyploid species, it presents a high level of sterility, being mainly multiplied by asexual propagation. Though it is a typical tropical crop, the Argentinean Province of Formosa has promoted banana production since the 60´ and it acquired a great local economic importance. Hence adaption to the subtropical region by natural selection for abiotic and biotic factors as well as by artificial selection intuitively practiced by farmers for fruit quality and other agronomically desired traits in their productive environment generated a wide biodiversity whose molecular basis is completely unknown. This genetic variation largely generated by mutation is essential for present and future banana breeding, biotechnology and industry demands. 52 clones collected and 4 standard international varieties (Williams, Jaffa, Gran Enano, and Gal, included as the experimental testers) were analyzed by 6 AFLP primer combinations previously selected. Clones were phenotypied at the farmers? field by perimeter and height of the pseudo-stem, number of leaves before flowering, number of hands (clusters of bananas by inflorescence), and length of finger (individual fruit). Most clones and the testers were autotriploids (AAA genome) belonging to the Canvendish subgroup but some on them were allotriploids (AAB). AFLP polymorphism was assessed as presence/ absence of bands and a binary matrix 1/0 was constructed to perform an ancestry relationships analysis among clones and testers with Infogen Software Student Version. Consensus among phenotype (agronomically important quantitative traits) and genotype (molecular variation) was measured by a Procustes analysis to find putative associations among both sets of data. Fifty five polymorphic bands from a total of 68 (81% of polymorphism) were detected by AFLP. The ancestry relationships analysis was applied only to autotripoids and testers. Williams variety was considered as the origin point, since it is and old genetic material largely used in many banana producing countries. The other three testers are close to Williams, and then the clones began to differentiate greatly according to the farmer field in which they were collected. Procustes analysis found a total consensus of 0,678, indicating a significant association among phenotype and genotype data. As indicated by ancestry relationships, all autotriploid clones were derived from at least one of the standard international varieties of banana and showed adaptation to the productive environment where were collected. Significant consensus among phenotype and genotype variations detected by Procustes analysis suggests association among agronomically important quantitative traits and molecular diversity.