Ecogeographic, Genetic and Taxonomic Studies of the Genus Lathyrus L
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ECOGEOGRAPHIC, GENETIC AND TAXONOMIC STUDIES OF THE GENUS LATHYRUS L. BY ALI ABDULLAH SHEHADEH A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Biosciences College of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Birmingham March 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT Lathyrus species are well placed to meet the increasing global demand for food and animal feed, at the time of climate change. Conservation and sustainable use of the genetic resources of Lathyrus is of significant importance to allow the regain of interest in Lathyrus species in world. A comprehensive global database of Lathyrus species originating from the Mediterranean Basin, Caucasus, Central and West Asia Regions is developed using accessions in major genebanks and information from eight herbaria in Europe. This Global Lathyrus database was used to conduct gap analysis to guide future collecting missions and in situ conservation efforts for 37 priority species. The results showed the highest concentration of Lathyrus priority species in the countries of the Fertile Crescent, France, Italy and Greece. The region extending from South-Central Turkey, through the western Mediterranean mountains of Syria to the northern Bekaa valley in Lebanon, and precisely the area around the Lebanese / Syrian border near Tel Kalakh region in Homs, was identified as the hotspot and the overall priority location for establishing genetic reserves. The gap analysis for ex situ conservation shows that only 6 species of the 37 priority species are adequately sampled. Showing a need for more collecting missions in the areas underrepresented, and for collecting closely related wild species of Lathyrus L. Six priority Lathyrus species have no ex situ collections requiring also further targeted ex situ collecting. Core subsets of Lathyrus species were identified by using several methods to develop manageable subsets which capture most of the variation from the original dataset and with high probability of finding sought traits. MaxEnt, PowerCore programs and R language ii platform facilitated subsets were derived from 2674 accessions belonging to 31 Lathyrus species originating from the Mediterranean Basin and the Caucasus, Central and West Asia regions. Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) was also used to derive a heat and drought tolerance subset based on maximum temperature and aridity index. PowerCore had the highest Shannon diversity index based on species, but does not capture enough accessions within species, which could be due to low number and nature of variables considered. MaxEnt subset and random subsets selected on the basis of taxon and geographic representativity appear to capture most the variability in the original population. The diversity index could be improved by adding accessions of species not included in the selected random samples using any of the methods. FIGS has allowed for the selection of more accessions of species well known for their adaptation to drought and heat. These subsets, with manageable size and higher probability of finding the sought traits, will allow to link conservation with utilization of genetic resources and will reduce the pressure of regeneration of species with cross-pollination, as is the case of some species of Lathyrus. Molecular characterization by using Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLPs), along with the morphologic observation were used to clarify the taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships within and between the sections and the species of the genus Lathyrus. The results showed that the Sect. Aphaca, Clymenum, Lathyrostylis and large part of Lathyrus section could be differentiated either by using morphological characters or AFLP markers. In addition, the sections Orobus, Pratensis and Orobastrum could also be separated when using model-based clustering analysis. The sections Linearicarpus and Nissolia stayed grouped when applying different clustering methods to morphological characters and AFLP markers. Both morphological characters and polymorphic markers were able to assign efficiently the species and sub-species to their respective sections, however, morphological iii characters allowed the discrimination of all species compared to AFLP markers. The used of STRUCTURE program improved further the classification of sections, but most importantly could highlight the genetic relationships among species. A Field Guide for the “Grass pea and Chicklings (Lathyrus L.)” of the Mediterranean Basin and the Caucasus, Central and West Asia regions is produced including 76 taxa with line drawings for 54 taxa, to assist local plant genetic resources workers in species identification. This aid is using different illustrations (line drawings, photographs, paintings, etc.) of the key features of the species, hence avoiding recourse to complex botanic terminology. In addition, it includes well detailed texts containing scientific and vernacular names, diagnostic descriptions, iconography, and alliances to other species, distribution maps, phenology, ecological preferences, geographic distribution and conservation status. iv DEDICATION To my beloved late father (1924-2002) To my mother who always prayed for my success To my wife Rasha and children Abdullah, Amr, Bana and Leen To my brothers and sister for their understanding and support during my studies and preparation of the thesis v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I must first thank ICARDA management and ICARDA colleagues at the Genetic Resources Section for their support and help provided to complete this thesis. I am grateful to the Director General Dr. Mahmoud Solh and the Deputy DG-Research Dr. Maarten van Ginkel for given me the opportunity to pursue my graduate studies. I am indebted to my supervisors, Dr. Nigel Maxted, Dr. Ahmed Amri and Dr. Michael Baum for their valuable guidance and support and for sharing their experiences and knowledge throughout all the phases from proposal development to submission of the thesis. I would like also to extend my great gratitude to Dr. Hafid Achtak, Dr. Abdallah Bari, and Mrs. Josephine Piggin for their help in the analysis of the data using different programs and software packages. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Jan Valkoun, former head of Genetic Resources Section for his support and to Dr. Kenneth Street for his continuous support. My thanks are also extended to Ms. Fida Alo for her great help with molecular markers part and to Ms. Joud Kayyali, Mr. Mohamed Jaafar and Mr. Mahmoud Cheikh Jneid for their valuable assistance with field and laboratory work. I would like also to thank Dr. Eddy De-Pauw and Mr. Fawaz Tulaymat for providing all GIS layers used in this study, Mr. George Chouha for his help with the final typesetting and printing of the thesis, Mr. Abdulrahman Hawa for his assistance in artwork and to Mr. Mousa Tawaifi for his assistance with software. I would like to extend my appreciation to the herbaria-keepers of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, UK, the Natural History Museum, London, UK, the Natural History Museum, Paris, France, the University of Montpellier, France, the Botanic Gardens in Geneva, Switzerland, and Florence University in Italy, for facilitating access to their conserved materials and specimen loans. I would like also to thank my colleagues, friends and staff at the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham for their support and friendship along the years I spent at the campus, in particular Ms Shelagh Kell, Dr. Joana Brehm and Dr. Marianne Mitchell. Special thanks are extended to Mrs. Sue Oldfield and her late colleague Mrs. Joyce James for their valuable and professional contribution to produce the line drawings of Lathyrus specimens included in the field guide and to Ms. Dana Simkova for her help in reviewing the literature review. vi Special thanks to the team of the range and pasture germplasm (Mohammad, Safiyyeh, Souriyeh and Maha) for their dedication and hard work during my study. At the end, I would like to thank the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme for their support provided with the West Asia Dryland Agrobiodiversity and all the colleagues in Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Syria for team spirit and friendship. My thanks are also extended to all colleagues, friends inside and outside ICARDA for their generosity of spirit. Thank you all. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 FOOD SECURITY AND AGROBIODIVERSITY: IMPORTANCE AND THREATS .................................................... 1 1.2 CONSERVATION TECHNIQUES....................................................................................................................