Cross-pollination effects on morphological, molecular, and biochemical diversity of a selected cinnamon (<i>Cinnamomum zeylanicum</i>Blume) seedling population
Nishadi Maduwanthi Neluwa Liyanage, A. L. Ranawake, P. C. G. Bandaranayake
Abstract
Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume, also known as true cinnamon, has gained more attention recently because of its proven medicinal properties. Having uniform quality raw materials is the key to the sustainability of pharmaceutical and other industries. Nevertheless, the majority of the cinnamon plantations in Sri Lanka and elsewhere have originated from highly cross-pollinated seeds. However, no reported studies exist on the variability of individuals caused by the natural cross-pollination of cinnamon. Therefore, our work focused on morphological, genetic, and biochemical characterization of a population of individuals that resulted from a single cross-pollination event of a known C. zeylanicum mother plant. The mother plant, the possible pollen donor and the selected progeny were assessed with several age- and environment-independent morphological traits and several Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) regions. Progeny had significantly different leaf and apex shapes and ISSR regions were about 80% polymorphic compared to the parents. The morphological and genetic diversity of progeny was also represented in the cinnamaldehyde, cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamyl acetate content at the seedling stage.