Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete
(1) Background and objectives: Cretan chestnut belongs to sweet chestnut (<i>Castanea sativa</i> Mill.) and has been historically associated with the lifestyle of rural communities with great economic importance. However, chestnut genetic resources in Crete have rarely been studied and a...
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Forests |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/12/1659 |
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| author | Mohamad Ali El Chami Nikolaos Tourvas George Kazakis Panagiotis Kalaitzis Filippos A. Aravanopoulos |
| author_facet | Mohamad Ali El Chami Nikolaos Tourvas George Kazakis Panagiotis Kalaitzis Filippos A. Aravanopoulos |
| author_sort | Mohamad Ali El Chami |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | (1) Background and objectives: Cretan chestnut belongs to sweet chestnut (<i>Castanea sativa</i> Mill.) and has been historically associated with the lifestyle of rural communities with great economic importance. However, chestnut genetic resources in Crete have rarely been studied and assessed, while chestnuts are threatened by several anthropogenic factors. This study assessed the genetic variability of the Cretan sweet chestnut using 59 trees corresponding to the four best-known chestnut cultivars (Strovliani, Rogdiani, Koutsakera and Katharokastania). (2) Materials and Methods: The trees were evaluated using seven simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs): three nSSRs and four EST-SSRs. (3) Results: Genomic SSR results revealed notable genetic diversity in terms of expected heterozygosity, level of polymorphism and effective number of alleles. Moreover, in the four chestnut cultivars, twenty-two unique genotypes were identified, deeming each cultivar to be in fact a multiclonal variety. Genetic differentiation among cultivars was relatively low, though highly significant. Four different groups of synonymies were found: two homonymy groups in Katharokastania and Strovliani, six in Rogdiani and eight in Koutsakera. The cluster analysis and PCoA results reveal two main clusters, one corresponding to the Rogdiani cultivar and the other to Katharokastania, while the other two could not be assigned to a particular group. (4) Conclusions: The null hypothesis of single-clone genotype-to-cultivar correspondence was tested and could not be accepted. |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4907 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:07:42Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forests |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2cf7bde7b454d98a065c8aec8dd96482023-11-23T08:20:35ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072021-11-011212165910.3390/f12121659Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in CreteMohamad Ali El Chami0Nikolaos Tourvas1George Kazakis2Panagiotis Kalaitzis3Filippos A. Aravanopoulos4Department of Horticultural Genetics & Biotechnology, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, P.O. Box 85, 73100 Chania, GreeceFaculty of Agriculture, Forest Science & Natural Environment Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 238, 54006 Thessaloniki, GreeceDepartment of Geo-Information in Environmental Management, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, P.O. Box 85, 73100 Chania, GreeceDepartment of Horticultural Genetics & Biotechnology, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, P.O. Box 85, 73100 Chania, GreeceFaculty of Agriculture, Forest Science & Natural Environment Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 238, 54006 Thessaloniki, Greece(1) Background and objectives: Cretan chestnut belongs to sweet chestnut (<i>Castanea sativa</i> Mill.) and has been historically associated with the lifestyle of rural communities with great economic importance. However, chestnut genetic resources in Crete have rarely been studied and assessed, while chestnuts are threatened by several anthropogenic factors. This study assessed the genetic variability of the Cretan sweet chestnut using 59 trees corresponding to the four best-known chestnut cultivars (Strovliani, Rogdiani, Koutsakera and Katharokastania). (2) Materials and Methods: The trees were evaluated using seven simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs): three nSSRs and four EST-SSRs. (3) Results: Genomic SSR results revealed notable genetic diversity in terms of expected heterozygosity, level of polymorphism and effective number of alleles. Moreover, in the four chestnut cultivars, twenty-two unique genotypes were identified, deeming each cultivar to be in fact a multiclonal variety. Genetic differentiation among cultivars was relatively low, though highly significant. Four different groups of synonymies were found: two homonymy groups in Katharokastania and Strovliani, six in Rogdiani and eight in Koutsakera. The cluster analysis and PCoA results reveal two main clusters, one corresponding to the Rogdiani cultivar and the other to Katharokastania, while the other two could not be assigned to a particular group. (4) Conclusions: The null hypothesis of single-clone genotype-to-cultivar correspondence was tested and could not be accepted.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/12/1659<i>Castanea</i> <i>sativa</i>nSSREST-SSRgenetic diversitysynonymshomonyms |
| spellingShingle | Mohamad Ali El Chami Nikolaos Tourvas George Kazakis Panagiotis Kalaitzis Filippos A. Aravanopoulos Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete Forests <i>Castanea</i> <i>sativa</i> nSSR EST-SSR genetic diversity synonyms homonyms |
| title | Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete |
| title_full | Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete |
| title_fullStr | Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete |
| title_short | Genetic Characterisation of Chestnut Cultivars in Crete |
| title_sort | genetic characterisation of chestnut cultivars in crete |
| topic | <i>Castanea</i> <i>sativa</i> nSSR EST-SSR genetic diversity synonyms homonyms |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/12/12/1659 |
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