Jie Zhang¹ , Yincheng Zhao²

1 Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
2 Tropical Medicinal Plant Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0011
Received: 01 Mar., 2025    Accepted: 10 Apr., 2025    Published: 05 May, 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Zhang J., and Zhao Y.C., 2025, Study on the correlation between phenotypic traits and genotypic diversity of Sapindus germplasm resources, Medicinal Plant Research, 15(3): 99-109 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2025.15.0011)

 

Sapindus has both economic and ecological value, is renowned for its saponin and oil utilization, and is widely distributed. This study integrates agronomic-morphological assessment with molecular markers such as SSR/ISSR to analyze the phenotype and genetic diversity of Sapindus germplasm and their correlations. The results showed that the oil content, saponin content and fruit size of Sapindus varied significantly. The population structure was consistent with the ecological adaptation zone. In some materials, saponins were negatively correlated with oil content, and candidate genes, like CYP716A, CAMTA, HD-ZIP, FATA, FAD2 and DGAT3, were identified. Research shows that, the integrated framework of phenotype, genotype and environment can support the construction of core germplasm and marker/genome selection, serving precision breeding and resource conservation. This study provides a reference for Sapindus marker-assisted/genomic selection, precision breeding, and resource conservation.

Sapindus; Phenotypic diversity; SSR/ISSR; Correlation analysis; Core germplasm; Mark-assisted selection