Distribution of SCoT-Based Populations Depict Genotypic Diversity of Six Stevia Germlines in Egypt

Abstract

The quick response (QR) codes produce unique patterns based on the black and white spots distribution. If germlines were ordered vertically in columns and alleles horizontally in rows, the presence (+ 1) and absence (0) of alleles could respectively be considered as the black and white spots. Consequently, the vertical and horizontal differential distribution of these black and white spots in a genotype can produce unique QR-like patterns (QRLP). The variation among these QRLP depends on the composition of alleles resembling the genetics embedded in the DNA. Accordingly, six stevia germlines were genotyped using 14 SCoT primers that generated 1320 allelic forms with 3.26% and 1.06% of uniquely positive and negative effects; respectively. Of the 1320 alleles (83.41% of polymorphs), 220 polymorphs encompassed 180–185 alleles representing the population size of effective interacting alleles (ne). The genetic diversity of SCoT was averaged across the observed number of alleles (Mean = 0.174; StDev = 0.44) and varied (Mean = 1.5; StDev = 0.35). Correspondingly, the Nei’s gene diversity (h) of observed heterozygosity (Mean = 0.27; StDev = 0.18) and the Shannon index (Mean = 0.41; StDev = 0.26) were different. Therefore, the gene/allele frequency that was discovered among the populations of SCoT loci varied (0.17, 0.33, 0.5, 0.67, 0.83, and 1). The dominant SCoT, in the current study, along with the unweighted pair-group of arithmetic average (UPGMA) analysis concluded four interacting ancestors configuring the genetics in the six stevia germlines. The study can be considered the first showing the SCoT marker as the best QRLP producer exclaiming the differential diversity despite the size of genotyped alleles.