Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39906928›Full record

ArticleThe plant genome2025

Molecular markers enhance substantially the distinctness of alfalfa varieties for registration and protection.

Paolo Annicchiarico, Nicolò Franguelli, Barbara Ferrari, Giacomo Campanella, Stefano Gualanduzzi, Margherita Crosta, Chiara Delogu, Giorgia Spataro, Nelson Nazzicari

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The plant genome, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Paolo AnnicchiaricoCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8027-1035
Nicolò FranguelliCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.
Barbara FerrariCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.
Giacomo CampanellaCREA, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Bologna, Italy.
Stefano GualanduzziCREA, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Bologna, Italy.
Margherita CrostaCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.
Chiara DeloguCREA, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Milano, Italy.
Giorgia SpataroCREA, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification, Milano, Italy.
Nelson NazzicariCouncil for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), Research Centre for Animal Production and Aquaculture, Lodi, Italy.

Funding

HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme Grant agreement No. 817970
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Plant varieties must satisfy distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS) requirements for registration. Morphophysiological trait-based distinctness may be challenging for cultivars of major perennial forages. Our study focused on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. subsp. sativa) with the aims of (a) comparing morphophysiological distinctness with molecular distinctness based on genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) or the alfalfa DArTag panel, envisaging different statistical criteria for molecular distinctness, and (b) assessing the consistency of morphophysiological and molecular cultivar diversity. The 18 most grown Italian varieties were jointly reevaluated morphophysiologically and were characterized molecularly using three bulked DNA samples of 200 independent genotypes per cultivar. Morphophysiological distinctness was limited by correlations between traits and resulted in 39 non-distinct cultivars in 153 paired comparisons and three cultivars distinct from any other. Best configurations for molecular distinctness featured about 10-fold more polymorphic markers and 10-fold lower average read depth per marker for GBS compared to DArTag. DArTag markers allowed for somewhat better variety distinction than GBS. They reduced to 11 the non-distinct cultivars in paired comparisons and increased to 11 the completely distinct cultivars, based on a principal components analysis of allele frequencies followed by analyses of variance on cultivar principal component scores. This criterion achieved greater variety distinctness than cluster analysis with bootstrap values, discriminant analysis, or analysis of molecular variance. Morphophysiologically distinct cultivars were generally distinct molecularly, but not the reverse. Mantel's test revealed a modest consistency across morphophysiological and DArTag (r = 0.39) or GBS-based (r = 0.46) measures of cultivar Euclidean distance. Our results and other considerations strongly encourage the adoption of molecular distinctness for alfalfa DUS.

Indexed as

Medicago sativaGenetic MarkersGenotypeGenetic Markers

Identifiers

PMID39906928
PMCPMC11795343

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.