Moringa oleifera Genebank in Brazil: current status and future approaches

Abstract

ABSTRACT Moringa oleifera Lam. is a tropical tree that belongs to the Moringaceae family and is popularly known worldwide for its multiple applications. This study aimed to evaluate the genetic variability of individuals from the Moringa Genebank of Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros, Sergipe state, Brazil. The Moringa Genebank comprises 25 accessions, represented by 177 genotypes, of which 18 were transferred in from an exchanged germplasm of the University of Florida, USA, and the others were from different states in Brazil. Leaves of each genotype were collected for DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis using 20 Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) primers. A total of 141 bands were amplified, and 100 % were polymorphic. The average expected heterozygosity (He) and Shannon's index were 0.11 and 0.16, respectively. The highest genetic divergence was found between the M4 and M18 accessions, both from Florida, USA, whereas the closest pair of accessions was M23 and M24, both from Brazil. The cluster analysis obtained through the Structure software divided moringa genotypes into two groups. These results suggest low genetic diversity between the accessions in the Moringa Genebank. Therefore, the introduction of new accessions in the Moringa GeneBank is essential to increasing the genetic variability of the species to ensure its conservation and improvement.

Keywords

• ISSR markers
• Moringaceae
• genetic resources