Systematic Studies on Populations of Medicago orbicularis (L.) Bartal: Molecular, Morphological and Ecological Characterizations

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Botany, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran

3 Science and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, Canada

4 Department of Biology, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran

Abstract

In this paper, pod morphological traits of eleven populations of Medicago orbicularis (L.) Bartal., collected from the West, Northwest, and Southwest of Iran, have been assessed. In addition, nuclear ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (nrITS, ITS1+5.8s+ITS2) variation in four populations of M. orbicularis was analyzed. Molecular phylogenetic analysis showed that all accessions of M. orbicularis formed a well-supported monophyletic clade while no geographical patterning was observed.  The result of Principle Components Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (Ward’s method) (despite a negative Mantel test), suggested a relationship between the morphology and geographical distribution of the populations.
Moreover, three distinctive geographical groups were determined using PCA and cluster analysis. Correlation analyses between ecological variables and morphological traits were often negative. However, altitude, average temperature, and average monthly soil temperature showed positive correlations. Wind's relative effect on all morphological traits has also been observed. Two morphological traits- Seeds Total Number (STN) per pod and Fruit Diameter (FDM)-indicated a significant variation. A direct relationship was observed between the two mentioned characters in all populations.  Paveh (PVH) and Marivan (MRV) with the highest STN and FDM demonstrated useful potential for breeding and conservation programs in the future. Overall, it could be assumed that the high STN in M. orbicularis (comparison with other species of Medicago studied in Iran, such as M. minima, M. sinskiae, and M. polymorpha), as well as the effect of winds on seeds distribution, are two main influential factors in creating geographical pattern and morphological diversity.

Keywords

References

Akaike H. 1974. A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Trans Automat Cont 19(6): 716-723.
Badri M, Najah Ben Cheikh B, Mahjoub A, Abdell Ch. 2016. Morpho-phenological diversity among natural populations of Medicago polymorpha of different Tunisian ecological area. Afri J Biotech 15(25):1330-1338.
Bagheri Z, Small E, Assadi M, Mehregan I. 2020. Populations of Medicago minima (L.) Bart. in Iran: High morphological variability irrelevant to ITS sequences and geographical proximity. J Taxo Biosyst 12(3): 53-72.
Bena G. 2001. Molecular phylogeny supports the morphologically based taxonomic transfer of the “medicagoid” Trigonella species to the genus Medicago L. Pl Syst Evol 229: 217-236.
Colagar AH, Yousefzadeh H, Shayanmehr F, Jalali SG, Zare H, Tippery NP. 2016. Molecular taxonomy of Hyrcanian Alnus using nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast trnH-psbA DNA barcode markers. System Biodivers 14(1): 88-101.
Conway MJ, Brandon NJ, Clem RL, Jones RM, Robertson BA, Willcocks JR. 2001. Growth and persistence of 17 annual medic (Medicago spp.) accessions on clay soils in Central Queensland. Trop Grassl 35: 226-234.
Derkaoui M, Cadde JL, Rommann LL. 1993. Forage quality in annual Medicago spp. Agric Mediterr 123:86-91
Douzery EJP, Pridgeon AM, Kores P, Linder P, Kurzweil H, ChaseMW. 1999. Molecular phylogenetics of Diseae (Orchidaceae): a contribution from nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences. Am J Bot 86: 887–899.
Emami-Tabatabaei SS, Assadi M, Small E, Dehshiri MM, Mehregan I. 2021. Genetic and morphological diversity in Iranian Medicago polymorpha populations by using morphological and ITS analysis. Rostaniha 22(2): 194-208.
Felsenstein J. 1985. Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evol 39(4): 783-791.
Ferchichi Y, Sakhraoui A, Ltaeif HB, Ben Mhara Y, Elimem M, Ben Naceur MB, et al. 2021. Eco-geographical, morphological and molecular characterization of a collection of the perennial endemic species Medicago tunetana (Murb.) AW Hill (Fabaceae) from Tunisia. Plants 10(9):1923.
Hammer Ø, Harper D, Ryan PD. 2012. PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontol Electron 4: 1-9.
Holderegger R, Buehler D, Gugerli F,Mane S. 2010. Landscape genetics of plants. Trends Plan Sci 15: 675-683.
Koch MA, Dobeš C, Mitchell-Olds T. 2003. Multiple hybrid formation in natural populations: concerted evolution of the internal transcribed spacer of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS) in North American Arabis divaricarpa (Brassicaceae). Mol Biol Evol 20(3): 338-350.
Lee S, Mohamed R, Faridah-Hanum I, Lamasudin D. 2018. Utilization of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) DNA sequence to trace the geographical sources of Aquilaria malaccensis Lam. populations. Plant Genet Res 16(2): 103-111.
Lester SE, Ruttenberg BI, Gaines SD, Kinlan BP. 2007. The relationship between dispersal ability and geographic range size. Ecol Lett 10(8): 745-758.
Loveless MD, Hamrick JL. 1984. Ecological determinants of genetic structure in plant populations. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 15: 65-95.
Maureira-Butler IJ, Pfeil BE, Muangprom A, Osborn TC, Doyle JF. 2008. The reticulate history of Medicago (Fabaceae). Syst Biol 57: 466-482.
Olivieri I. Gouyon PH, and Prosperi JM. 1991. Life cycles of some Mediterranean invasive plants. In: Edited by RH. Groves and FDI Castri. Biogeography of Mediterranean invasions. Cambridge University Press 145-157.
Podani J. 2000. Introduction to the exploration of multivariate biological data: Backhuys Publishers. Leiden, 407.
Posada D, Crandall KA. 1998. MODELTEST: testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinf (Oxford, England) 14(9): 817-818.
Ronquist F, Huelsenbeck JP .2003. MrBayes 3: bayesian phylogenetic inference under mixed models. Bioinf 19(12):1572-1574.
Şakiroğlu M, Doyle JJ, Charles Brummer E. 2010. Inferring population structure and genetic diversity of a broad range of wild diploid alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) accessions using SSR markers. Theor Appl Genet 121: 403-415.
Small E. 2011. Alfa Alfa and relatives: evolution and classification of Medicago. NRC research press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 421.
Steele KP, Ickert-Bond SM, Zarre S, and Wojciechowski MF. 2010. Phylogeny and character evolution in Medicago (Legominosae): evidence from analyses of plastid trnK/matK and nuclear GA3oxl sequences. Am J Bot 97:1142-1155.
Steele KP, Wojciechowski MF. 2003. Phylogenetic analyses of tribes Trifolieae and Vicieae, based on sequences of the plastid gene matK (Papilionoideae: Leguminosae). Advances in Legume Systematics 10, 355-370.
Swofford DL. 2002. PAUP*, Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (*and other methods). Sinauer Associates. Sunderland, Massachusetts, United States.
Zaraee R, Small E, Assadi M, Mehregan I. 2020. The taxonomic Status of Medicago Sinskiae: insights from morphological and molecular data. J Taxon Biosyst 12(3): 1-14.
Zhang YH, Wang I, Comes HP, Peng H, Qiu Y-Xi .2016. Contributions of historical and contemporary geographic and environmental factors to phylogeographic structure in a Tertiary relict species, Emmenopterys henryi (Rubiaceae). Sci Rep 6: 24041.
Zhu Y,Sheaffer CC, D.K. Barnes DK. 1996. Forage yield and quality of six annual Medicago species in the north-central USA. Agron J 88: 955-960.
Journal of Genetic Resources
Volume 8, Issue 2
2022
Pages 178-187

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics