Timing of seed germination influences plant lifetime fitness and can affect the ability of plant populations to colonize and persist in changing environments. However, the genetic variation of the seed germination response remains poorly understood. The amplified restriction fragment polymorphism (AFLP) technique was applied to characterize the genetic variation of germinated seeds collected from three Festuca hallii populations in the Canadian prairie. Three subpopulations with early, intermediate and late germination were identified from each population, based on germination tests at 10, 15 and 20°C in controlled growth chambers. Three AFLP primer pairs were employed to screen a total of 540 assayed seedling samples and 188 polymorphic AFLP bands were scored for each sample. None of the assayed AFLP bands were significantly associated with seed germination, but marked differences in estimates of mean band frequency were observed for various groups of germinating seeds under different test temperatures. Partitioning of the total AFLP variation showed that 5.9% AFLP variation was present among seeds of the three populations, 0.3% among seeds of three germination subpopulations, and 0.5% among seeds grouped for germination temperature. Genetic differentiation was significant among 27 groups of seeds representing population, germination timing and test temperature. Subpopulations with early and intermediate germination shared similar genetic backgrounds and were genetically differentiated from the late germination subpopulation. These results indicate that seed genotypes respond slightly differently to environmental variation, resulting in significant but weak genetic differentiation in the germination of F. hallii seeds. Implications for plant establishment and fescue restoration are discussed.

Characterization of plant germplasm using molecular techniques is playing an increasingly important role in the management and utilization of plant genetic resources, but has its limitations in the screening of large numbers of accessions held in seed genebanks worldwide. Bulking individual plants from one accession or group to form a representative sample is a promising approach to widening the scope of a characterization, but it is not without technical problems in detecting genetic variation. This review was conducted to assess the technical pitfalls of bulking, and to evaluate the effectiveness of various bulking methods in the assessment of genetic variation and genetic relationships, and in the identification of plant germplasm. Clearly, some alleles, particularly those occurring at low frequency, may go undetected in a bulked sample, depending on the bulking methods and the molecular techniques used. As a result, genetic diversity estimates and genetic relationship inferences can be significantly biased. Germplasm identification may not be always reliable. Thus, it is imperative that the detection limit imposed by bulking be assessed for a newly initiated molecular germplasm characterization and bias be considered in interpretation of the resulting characterization data. Equally imperative is the need for continuous efforts of exploring efficient bulking procedures for the screening of large germplasm collections, particularly by the newly developed marker systems.

Sinapis alba L. is a major specialty crop grown as a condiment in western Canada, but little is known about its genetic diversity. The objective of this study was to assess the level and pattern of genetic diversity in a collection of 127 S. alba accessions held at Plant Gene Resources of Canada using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Five AFLP primer pairs were applied, and 134 polymorphic bands were scored for each accession. These scored bands had frequencies of occurrence ranging from 0.02 to 0.99 with an average of 0.69. More AFLP variation was found within single (79.1%) than between (20.9%) S. alba accessions. A small degree of AFLP difference (1.7%) was observed among the accessions of various regions, while relatively large variation (9.2%) existed among the accessions of various countries. A large AFLP difference (15.6%) also existed between the yellow- and brown-seeded accessions, but only 6.2% difference was observed between the cultivar and landrace accessions. Two distinct groups of S. alba germplasm were identified on the basis of the seed colour (yellow or brown), although a few mixtures also existed. No apparent ‘duplicated’ accessions were observed. The most diverse accessions were from Italy, Spain, France and Greece. Among the most genetically distinct accessions were SA97 from Portugal, SA89 and SA88 from France, SA83 from Russia and SA57 from Italy. These findings are significant not only for managing S. alba germplasm, but also for identifying diverse germplasm that can be used by plant breeders to improve S. alba seed yield and quality parameters.

There is a long-standing concern that modern plant breeding reduces crop genetic diversity, which may have consequences for the vulnerability of crops to changes in pests, diseases, climate and agricultural practices. Recent molecular assessments of genetic diversity changes in existing genepools of major agricultural crops may shed some light on the impact of plant breeding on crop genetic diversity. Reviewing published assessments revealed different impacts of plant breeding on improved genepools, not only narrowing or widening their genetic base, but also shifting their genetic background. In general, the genome-wide reduction of crop genetic diversity accompanying genetic improvement over time is minor, but allelic reduction at individual chromosomal segments is substantial. More efforts are needed to assess what proportion of lost alleles is associated with undesirable traits.

Molecular characterization of ex situ plant germplasm, although more attainable than before, has rarely been applied to a whole germplasm collection of 2000 accessions or larger. The benefits of screening large numbers of accessions have not been well recognized for germplasm management and utilization. Challenges also exist in identifying duplicated and genetically related accessions and in validating developed core subsets. Here we show how a new approach using an average marker-based dissimilarity of an accession in a collection can be applied to identify both redundancy and distinctness in a plant germplasm collection. Application of this dissimilarity measure to 2727 flax accessions genotyped by 149 randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers revealed that up to 22% of accessions could be deemed to be redundant. Up to 500 of the most distinct flax accessions were identified and these can be directly screened for traits of interest to broaden the genetic base in a flax improvement programme. These results demonstrate that molecular screening of a large number of accessions with an informative diversity analysis can facilitate the management and utilization of ex situ plant germplasm.

A deterministic analysis is conducted to examine marginal dominance for two linked viability loci influencing inbreeding depression and its graphical inferences. Four estimators of marginal dominance are derived, assuming a biallelic marker locus completely linked to one of the viability loci, and the biases in expected estimates due to the other deleterious locus are discussed. Three conditions under which apparent partial dominance or underdominance could occur are found, i.e. when two multiplicative, partially recessive loci are linked in coupling phase and when two synergistic, highly overdominant loci are linked in coupling or repulsion phases. Expected frequencies of the three marker genotypes in selfed progeny are derived, considering two linkage phases, two types of marker locus position with respect to the viability loci, and the multiplicative and synergistic fitness models. Segregation ratios are generated for the marker locus linked to either two overdominant or partially recessive loci and plotted in gene action graphs to examine the robustness of the graphical inferences of gene action due to the presence of an additional linked viability locus. Under a multiplicative fitness model, the presence of an additional partially recessive or overdominant locus in the vicinity of the marker locus does not greatly affect the graphical inferences of the relative role of partially recessive or overdominant genes in expression of inbreeding depression. A marker linked to two synergistic, highly overdominant loci can behave as though linked to a partially recessive, partially dominant or underdominant locus, even with relatively weak synergism.