152946 - Genetic variation in flowering traits of Tasmanian Leptospermum scoparium and association with provenance home site climatic factors.pdf (2.99 MB)
Genetic variation in flowering traits of Tasmanian Leptospermum scoparium and association with provenance home site climatic factors
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 13:10 authored by Wellington, CN, Rene VaillancourtRene Vaillancourt, Bradley PottsBradley Potts, Worledge, D, Oa grady, APLeptospermum scoparium is emerging as an economically important plant for the commercial production of mānuka honey and essential oils, both exhibiting unique antibacterial attributes. To support its domestication this is the first quantitative genetic study of variation for L. scoparium traits. It utilised plants from 200 open-pollinated families derived from 40 native populations, from across the species range in Tasmania, grown in a common garden field trial. The traits studied were survival, growth, and the flowering traits precocity, the timing of seasonal peak flowering, flowering duration, and flowering intensity. Significant genetic variation was evident at the population level for all traits studied and at the family level for three traits - growth, flowering precocity, and time to peak flowering. These three traits had moderate to high narrow-sense heritability estimates ranging from 0.27 to 0.69. For six of the traits studied, population differences were associated with climate attributes at the locations where seed was collected, suggesting adaptation to the local climate may have contributed to the observed population differentiation. Population level geographical trends suggest that genotypes to focus on for domestication originate from the eastern half of Tasmania for precociousness and the western half of Tasmania for earlier time to peak flowering and extended flowering duration.
Funding
Cooperative Research Centre for Honey Bee Products
History
Publication title
PlantsVolume
11Issue
8Article number
1029Number
1029Pagination
1-19ISSN
2223-7747Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
MDPIPlace of publication
SwitzerlandRights statement
Copyright 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Repository Status
- Open