Abiotic stress-responsive transcription factor derived-SSR markers reveal conserved regulatory genes and genetic structure in two cultivated jute species.
Bhowmick R, Meena K, R T, Chourasia KN, Meena JK
Crop Improvement
Jute bags, rope, and burlap in your home come from a crop that's increasingly threatened by flooding and drought—these new genetic tools could help farmers breed tougher jute plants that keep producing even as weather patterns grow more extreme.
Jute is a plant used to make natural fibers like burlap, but it struggles when hit by drought, salty soils, or flooding. Researchers scanned jute's genes to find the ones that switch on during stress, then built special DNA 'bookmarks' tied to those exact genes. These bookmarks can now help breeders quickly identify and grow jute plants that are naturally better at surviving tough conditions.
Key Findings
Researchers identified 370 and 348 stress-responsive gene regulators carrying microsatellite markers in the two cultivated jute species (C. capsularis and C. olitorius), yielding 728 and 702 usable DNA markers respectively.
About 74–77% of the new markers sit in regulatory gene regions rather than protein-coding sequences, making them especially useful for tracking how stress-response genes are switched on or off.
Population structure analysis grouped 3 distinct genetic clusters across jute varieties, with genetic distances ranging from 0.091 (very similar) to 0.773 (highly distinct), revealing substantial diversity available for breeding.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists developed a large set of DNA markers tied directly to stress-response genes in jute, a major natural fiber crop, to help breeders select for drought, salt, and flood tolerance more precisely and efficiently.
Abstract Preview
Jute (Corchorus spp.) is an important natural bast-fibre crop, but its productivity is severely affected by abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and waterlogging. Improvement of stress resil...
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Jute is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus Corchorus, of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is Corchorus olitorius, but such fiber is considered inferior to that derived from Cor...