GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF ASEXUALLY PROPAGATED PLANTS

Agaves are succulent monocot plants rich in fibers, sugars and other important compounds.
They are also valued as ornamental plants and for their ability to grow in poor soils.
Molecular markers (AFLP and ISTR) were used to study genetic diversity in different Agavaceae plant samples.
The comparison of the banding pattern between the mother plant and rhizomes and bulbils derived daughter plants showed that genetic variability is introduced during asexual reproduction in these species.
This asexual variability was used to genetically improve henequen (Agave fourcroydes), a cultivated agave that it is multiplied only through vegetative propagation using rhizomes.
A selection was performed among individuals in a clonally propagated population and used for an improvement program via micropropagation through somatic embryogenesis.
After micropropagation of three elite lines and three years under field conditions, we demonstrated using morphological analysis that plants originating from the same mother plant formed a group in Principal Component Analysis (PCA). AFLP and cluster analysis using Unweighted Pair-Group Method Arithmetic-Average (UPGMA) showed that each mother plant and its somatic embryogenesis-derived daughter plants clustered, indicating the conservation of molecular marker patterns in the micropropagated daughter plants.

International Symposium on Biotechnology of Temperate Fruit Crops and Tropical Species

D. Infante, M. Osorio, S. Molina, G. Gonzalez

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2007.738.95