DNA profiling and phenotyping of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris l.) parental components and hybrids

Using DNA profiling and phenotyping, 10 parental lines and 10 hybrids of sugar beet from domestic and Belarusian breeding programs were studied. Twelve microsatellite loci exhibited a high level of polymorphism information content (PIC), ranging from 0.55 to 0.83, with the highest value observed at locus Unigene 17623B (PIC = 0.83). Approximately 92% of loci across all samples possessed dominant alleles present in more than half of the samples. Among all alleles across all loci, about 55–60% were dominant (frequency > 50%), 25–30% were of intermediate frequency (20%–50%), and around 10–15% were rare alleles (frequency < 20%), indicating high conservation alongside maintained genetic diversity due to existing allelic variability. Cluster analysis performed based on the Jaccard distance matrix using the UPGMA algorithm in the PAST software delineated the 10 hybrids according to breeding groups (Ramonskaya, Lgovskaya, and Belarusian), parental relatedness, and ploidy level. The hybrid “Polibel” showed the lowest similarity to other hybrids (mean Jaccard index of 0.416), whereas the hybrid “Konkurs” exhibited the highest similarity (0.592) to the sample set. Based on genetic profiles obtained with a panel of polymorphic markers, unique molecular genetic passports were developed for the 10 hybrids. An evaluation of genotype data from the Ramonskaya, Lgovskaya, and Belarusian breeding programs was conducted over 27 biomorphological traits, including those characteristics regulated by the State Commission of the Russian Federation for Testing and Protection of Breeding Achievements (FSBI “Gossortkomissiya”) registration guidelines for hybrids.

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