Genetic relationships among Prunus rootstocks for sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars

Sweet cherries can be grafted on a wide range of rootstocks belonging to Prunus avium, Prunus cerasus, Prunus mahaleb, Prunus angustifolia or hybrids of different Prunus species. Identification of Prunus rootstocks using morphological traits is almost impossible particularly during the dormant season. However, molecular analysis carried out on actively growing shoot tips, leaves or dormant buds provides good opportunity to reliably distinguish rootstocks. In this study, DNA was extracted from the leaves of a total of 184 sweet cherry rootstock candidates belonging to P. avium L., P. cerasus L., P. mahaleb L. and P. angustifolia L. previously selected from the north-western part of Turkey. The rootstock candidates were tested with ten simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers, developed for the Prunus genus. The primers successfully identified all rootstock candidates. The results showed that the number of alleles per locus ranged from 10 (UDAp-401, UCD-CH21 and CPSCT010) to 20 (UCD-CH31) with an average of 13.3 alleles per locus, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. Unweighted Pair-Group Method with Arithmetic mean analysis demonstrated that P. avium accessions are closely related to P. cerasus. The reference rootstocks were clustered with their associated botanical species. © Copyright 2012 © NIAB

Simple sequence repeat-based assessment of genetic relationships among Prunus rootstocks

Ten SSR loci, previously developed for Prunus, were analyzed to examine genetic relationships among 23 rootstock candidates for sweet and sour cherries, of the species P. avium, P. cerasus, P. mahaleb, and P. angustifolia. Five genotypes of P. laurocerasus, not used as rootstock, were included in the molecular analysis. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 8 to 12, with a mean of 9, while the number of microsatellite genotypes varied from 8 to 17, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. The degree of heterozygosity (0.61) was high. Clustering analysis resulted in two main clusters. The first cluster was divided into two subclusters; the first subcluster consisted of P. avium and P. cerasus, and the second subcluster consisted of P. laurocerasus. The second cluster was divided into two subclusters. The first subcluster consisted of P. mahaleb genotypes and the second consisted of P. angustifolia genotypes. The reference rootstocks also clustered with their associated botanical species. Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean analysis demonstrated that P. laurocerasus genotypes had less genetic variation and that P. avium genotypes were more closely related to P. cerasus. The SSR-based phylogeny was generally consistent with Prunus taxonomy information, suggesting the applicability of SSR analysis for genotyping and phylogenetic studies in the genus Prunus

Simple sequence repeat-based assessment of genetic relationships among Prunus rootstocks

ABSTRACT. Ten SSR loci, previously developed for Prunus, were analyzed to examine genetic relationships among 23 rootstock candidates for sweet and sour cherries, of the species P. avium, P. cerasus, P. mahaleb, and P. angustifolia. Five genotypes of P. laurocerasus, not used as rootstock, were included in the molecular analysis. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 8 to 12, with a mean of 9, while the number of microsatellite genotypes varied from 8 to 17, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. The degree of heterozygosity (0.61) was high. Clustering analysis resulted in two main clusters. The first cluster was divided into two subclusters; the first subcluster consisted of P. avium and P. cerasus, and the second subcluster consisted of P. laurocerasus. The second cluster was divided into two subclusters. The first subcluster consisted of P. mahaleb genotypes and the second consisted of P. angustifolia genotypes. The reference rootstocks also clustered with their associated botanical species. Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean analysis demonstrated that P. laurocerasu

Genetic relationships among Prunus

Sweet cherries can be grafted on a wide range of rootstocks belonging to Prunus avium, Prunus cerasus, Prunus mahaleb, Prunus angustifolia or hybrids of different Prunus species. Identification of Prunus rootstocks using morphological traits is almost impossible particularly during the dormant season. However, molecular analysis carried out on actively growing shoot tips, leaves or dormant buds provides good opportunity to reliably distinguish rootstocks. In this study, DNA was extracted from the leaves of a total of 184 sweet cherry rootstock candidates belonging to P. avium L., P. cerasus L., P. mahaleb L. and P. angustifolia L. previously selected from the north-western part of Turkey. The rootstock candidates were tested with ten simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers, developed for the Prunus genus. The primers successfully identified all rootstock candidates. The results showed that the number of alleles per locus ranged from 10 (UDAp-401, UCD-CH21 and CPSCT010) to 20 (UCD-CH31) with an average of 13.3 alleles per locus, indicating that the SSRs were highly informative. Unweighted Pair-Group Method with Arithmetic mean analysis demonstrated that P. avium accessions are closely related to P. cerasus. The reference rootstocks were clustered with their associated botanical species. © Copyright 2012 © NIAB

Behavioral and physiological responses to fruit availability of spider monkeys ranging in a small forest fragment

Numerous animal species currently experience habitat loss and fragmentation. This might result in behavioral and dietary adjustments, especially because fruit availability is frequently reduced in fragments. Food scarcity can result in elevated physiological stress levels, and chronic stress often has detrimental effects on individuals. Some animal species exhibit a high degree of fission–fusion dynamics, and theory predicts that these species reduce intragroup feeding competition by modifying their subgroup size according to resource availability. Until now, however, there have been few studies on how species with such fission–fission dynamics adjust their grouping patterns and social behavior in small fragments or on how food availability influences their stress levels. We collected data on fruit availability, feeding behavior, stress hormone levels (measured through fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGCM)), subgroup size, and aggression for two groups of brown spider monkeys (Ateles hybridus) in a small forest fragment in Colombia and examined whether fruit availability influences these variables. Contrary to our predictions, spider monkeys ranged in smaller subgroups, had higher FGCM levels and higher aggression rates when fruit availability was high compared to when it was low. The atypical grouping pattern of the study groups seems to be less effective at mitigating contest competition over food resources than more typical fission–fusion patterns. Overall, our findings illustrate that the relationship between resource availability, grouping patterns, aggression rates, and stress levels can be more complex than assumed thus far. Additional studies are needed to investigate the long-term consequences on the health and persistence of spider monkeys in fragmented habitats

The Sensory Systems of Alouatta: Evolution with an Eye to Ecology

Our knowledge about the perceptual world of howler monkeys is unevenlydistributed between the fi ve senses. Whereas there is abundant knowledge about thesense of vision in the genus Alouatta , only limited data on the senses of hearing,smell, taste, and touch are available. The discovery that howler monkeys are theonly genus among the New World primates to possess routine trichromacy hasimportant implications for the evolution of color vision and therefore has been studiedintensively. Detailed information about the genetic mechanisms and physiologicalprocesses underlying color vision in howler monkeys are available. Although thesound production, vocal repertoire, and acoustic communication in the genusAlouatta have been well documented, basic physiological measures of hearing performancesuch as audiograms are missing. Similarly, despite an increasing numberof observational studies on olfactory communication in howler monkeys, there is acomplete lack of physiological studies on the effi ciency of their sense of smell.Information about the senses of taste and touch is even scarcer and mainly restrictedto a description of their anatomical basis. A goal of this chapter is to summarize ourcurrent knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, genetics, and behavioral relevanceof the different senses in howler monkeys in comparison to other platyrrhines.</p