TY - JOUR UR - https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1627v1 DO - 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1627v1 TI - Sex expression and floral diversity in Jatropha curcas: A population study in its center of origin AU - Adriano-Anaya,María de Lourdes AU - Pérez-Castillo,Edilma AU - Salvador-Figueroa,Miguel AU - Ruiz-González,Sonia AU - Vázquez-Ovando,José Alfredo AU - Grajales-Conesa,Julieta J AU - Ovando-Medina,Isidro DA - 2016/01/05 PY - 2016 KW - Breeding KW - Chiapas KW - Flowering KW - Mexico KW - Multivariate analysis AB - Sex expression and floral morphology studies are central to understand breeding behavior and to define the productive potential of plant genotypes. In particular, the new bioenergy crop Jatropha curcas L. has been classified as a monoecious species. Nonetheless, there is no information about its reproductive diversity in the Mesoamerican region, which is considered its center of origin and diversification. Thus, we determined sex expression and floral morphology in J. curcas populations from southern Mexico and Guatemala. Our results showed that most of J. curcas specimens had typical inflorescences separate sexes (monoecious), meanwhile the rest were atypical (gynoecious, androecious, andromonoecious, androgynomonoecious). The most important variables to group these populations, based on a discriminant analysis, were: male flower diameter, female petal length and male nectary length. From the southern Mexico "Guerrero" was the most diverse population and in Chiapas "Centro". On the other hand, a cluster analysis showed that the accessions from southern Mexico were grouped without showing any correlation with the geographical origin, while those accessions with atypical sexuality were grouped together. Additionally, a Mantel test showed a significant correlation between the distance matrix generated in this study and the genetic distance matrix (AFLP) previously reported for the same accessions. Our results contribute to design genetic improvement programs by using sexually and morphologically contrasting plants from the center of origin. VL - 4 SP - e1627v1 T2 - PeerJ PrePrints JO - PeerJ PrePrints J2 - PeerJ PrePrints SN - 2167-9843 ER -