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Wild coriander: an untapped genetic resource for future coriander breeding

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Abstract

Coriander, Coriandrum sativum L., is globally cultivated for various purposes, including cooking, cosmetics and traditional medicine. Coriander has been cultivated for thousands of years and desiccated coriander fruits were found in various Mediterranean archaeological sites. The existence of wild coriander that is not a cultivation escapee is questioned. This work aimed to determine whether coriander growing wild in Israel significantly differs from cultivated genotypes and might be used for future breeding purposes. Nine coriander accessions originating from wild populations were evaluated for their fruit morphology, germination rates, growth rates, and fruit volatile content in comparison to those of nine cultivated genotypes. Wild accession fruits were found to have a harder and thicker coat and a low germination rate, that was recovered by seed rescue, suggesting stronger mechanical dormancy as compared to the cultivated varieties. Wild coriander fruits had a significantly lower essential oil content but a similar volatile profile in comparison to cultivated coriander. When grown under the same irrigation conditions, wild accessions had a much smaller vegetative appearance than cultivated coriander. This study documented the existence of wild coriander accessions that are markedly different from the cultivated genotypes. We illustrate two theories for their origin: 1) they are a separate subset or outliers in the C. sativum species that may have escaped domestication. 2) they represent the ancestor of the modern coriander crop. Future genomic studies will assist in judging which hypothesis holds.

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Availability of data and material

Seeds of genotypes used in this study are available from The Israel Plant Gene Bank upon request, and subject to the number of seeds available for a given accession. The full list of accessions as related to their characterization in this work and the bank catalogue number can be found on Online Resource 2.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge Doya Sa'adi for her long-term preservation of the coriander seed stock in Newe-Ya'ar, and Prof. Nativ Dudai and Dr. David Chaimovitsh for their helpful thoughts and ideas. We thank Shira Gal of the Microscopy Unit in Newe-Ya’ar for her help with the RH-2000 stereomicroscope. We also thank Prof. Efraim Lewinsohn and Dr. Oz Barazani for critical reading of the manuscript. Additional thanks to Dikla Lifshitz for helping with the seeds of the Israel Plant Gene Bank. Finally, we thank Arkady Krasnovsky, Alona Shachter, Hadas Ben-Gera, Gilad Oren and Itzik Barber for their assistance with the plants and field.

Funding

This work was partially supported by The Israel Plant Gene Bank Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Newe-Ya’ar Research Centre, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute , Ramat-Yishay, Israel

    Vivek Arora, Chen Adler, Alina Tepikin, Gili Ziv, Tali Kahane, Jackline Abu-Nassar & Itay Gonda

  2. Ort Braude College, P.O. Box 78, 21982, Karmiel, Israel

    Alina Tepikin

  3. Israel Gene Bank, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Institute , Rishon, LeZion, Israel

    Sivan Golan & Einav Mayzlish-Gati

Authors
  1. Vivek Arora
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  2. Chen Adler
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  3. Alina Tepikin
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  4. Gili Ziv
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  5. Tali Kahane
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  6. Jackline Abu-Nassar
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  7. Sivan Golan
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  8. Einav Mayzlish-Gati
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  9. Itay Gonda
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Contributions

V.A., C.A., G.Z., T.K., J.A.N. and A.T. performed the experiments. S.G. and E.M.G. developed the seed rescue protocol and reviewed the manuscript. I.G., V.A, A.T. and C.A. analysed the data. V.A. and I.G. wrote the manuscript. I.G. coordinated and designed the research.

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Correspondence to Itay Gonda.

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Arora, V., Adler, C., Tepikin, A. et al. Wild coriander: an untapped genetic resource for future coriander breeding. Euphytica 217, 138 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-021-02870-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-021-02870-4

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