School of Agriculture, Food and Wine
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This collection contains Honours, Masters and Ph.D by coursework theses from University of Adelaide postgraduate students within the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. The material has been approved as making a significant contribution to knowledge.
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Browsing School of Agriculture, Food and Wine by Author "Akomeah, Belinda"
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Item Open Access Impact of in vitro induced epigenetic variation on the nutritional value of three Ghanaian sweet potato genotypes: implications on biofortification(2016) Akomeah, Belinda; Ramesh, Sunita A.; Quain, Marian D.; School of Agriculture, Food and WineBiofortification aims to increase crop nutritional value to combat nutrient deficiency. Due to the prevalence of viruses, healthy cultivars of biofortified genotypes are produced through micropropagation techniques. However, during micropropagation, plants are exposed to conditions that could induce somaclonal variation, and result in phenotypic changes affecting the crop’s nutritional value. Currently, sweet potato (Ipomoea batata) is biofortified for enhanced beta-carotene content to alleviate Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD). Undesired somaclonal abnormalities acquired during in vitro culture could alter key nutrients such as beta-carotene, protein, or zinc. Therefore, it is important to ensure the clonal fidelity of the micropropagated biofortified lines. This study assessed the extent of in vitro induced epigenetic variation in the genome of meristem-cultured plants, and its correlation with the nutritional composition in three Ghanaian sweet potato genotypes (Bohye, Ogyefo and Otoo). Micropropagated plants presented no observable leaf and storage root abnormalities, but relatively lower levels of iron, protein, zinc, and glucose. Methylation Sensitive Amplification Polymorphism analysis showed a high level of in vitro induced molecular variation in micropropagated plants. Ogyefo showed the least viral incidence and epigenetic differentiation but the most profound nutritional changes, while Bohye showed the highest epigenetic variability. Further analysis indicated that epigenetic, rather than genetic, accounts for most of the observed variability. Taken collectively, this study offers an insight into the impact of micropropagation in methylation profiles, and its correlation to root quality in the improved sweet potato genotypes. The implications of these results to the ongoing bio-fortification projects are also discussed.