{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,8]],"date-time":"2026-04-08T03:31:28Z","timestamp":1775619088248,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,20]],"date-time":"2018-04-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1524182400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Agronomy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Opuntia spp., most likely few individuals, were introduced in the Iberian Peninsula in the beginning of the 16th century, after the discovery of America, spreading afterwards throughout the Mediterranean basin. We analysed, for the first time, the genetic diversity in a set of 19 Portuguese Opuntia spp. populations from the species O. ficus-indica, O. elata, O. dillenii and O. robusta using nuclear microsatellite (nuSSR) markers. The Italian cultivars \u2018Bianca\u2019, \u2018Gialla\u2019 and \u2018Rossa\u2019 were included in the study for comparison purposes. The nuSSR amplifications produced from five to 16 alleles, with an average of 9.2 alleles per primer pair, and average polymorphism information content of 0.71. The estimated Dice coefficient among populations varied from 0.26 to 1.0, indicating high interspecific genetic diversity but low genetic diversity at the intraspecific level. The hierarchical clustering analysis revealed four major groups that clearly separated the four Opuntia species. Among the O. ficus-indica populations, two sub-clusters were found, one including the white pulp fruits (with cv. Bianca) and the other with the orange pulp ones and including the cv. Gialla, the cv. Rossa, and one pale yellow pulp population. No genetic differences were found between the inermis form, O. ficus-indica f. ficus-indica, and the rewilded spiny one, O. ficus-indica f. amyclaea. The dendrogram indicated that the clustering pattern was unrelated to geographical origin. The results revealed a low level of genetic diversity among the Portuguese populations of O. ficus-indica.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/agronomy8040055","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,23]],"date-time":"2018-04-23T04:29:17Z","timestamp":1524457757000},"page":"55","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Opuntia spp. Portuguese Populations Using SSR Molecular Markers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Carlos M. G.","family":"Reis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Castelo Branco, Escola Superior Agr\u00e1ria, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Biotecnologia de Plantas da Beira Interior, Escola Superior Agr\u00e1ria de Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Recursos Naturais, Ambiente e Sociedade (CERNAS-IPCB), Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Joana","family":"Raimundo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Biotecnologia de Plantas da Beira Interior, Escola Superior Agr\u00e1ria de Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4684-1262","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Margarida","family":"Ribeiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Castelo Branco, Escola Superior Agr\u00e1ria, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Biotecnologia de Plantas da Beira Interior, Escola Superior Agr\u00e1ria de Castelo Branco, 6001-909 Castelo Branco, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Recursos Naturais, Ambiente e Sociedade (CERNAS-IPCB), Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Forest Research Centre, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1915","DOI":"10.3732\/ajb.91.11.1915","article-title":"The origins of an important cactus crop, Opuntia ficus-indica (Cactaceae): New molecular evidence","volume":"91","author":"Griffith","year":"2004","journal-title":"Am. J. Bot."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02985249","article-title":"Past and present role of the Indian-fig prickly-pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Miller, Cactaceae) in the Agriculture of Sicily","volume":"46","author":"Barbera","year":"1992","journal-title":"Econ. Bot."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Anderson, E. (2001). The Cactus Family, Timber Press."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.17660\/ActaHortic.1997.438.4","article-title":"Distribution of phenotipic characters within a seedling population from Opuntia ficus-indica (cv. \u201cGialla\u201d)","volume":"438","author":"Nieddu","year":"1997","journal-title":"Acta Hortic."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"309","DOI":"10.1007\/s10681-010-0286-9","article-title":"Microsatellite markers: An overview of the recent progress in plants","volume":"177","author":"Kalia","year":"2011","journal-title":"Euphytica"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"319","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1007428818078","article-title":"DNA isolation and amplification from cacti","volume":"15","author":"Ramirez","year":"1997","journal-title":"Plant Mol. Biol. Report."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1124","DOI":"10.21273\/HORTSCI.35.6.1124","article-title":"DNA extraction from several cacti","volume":"35","author":"Doudareva","year":"2000","journal-title":"HortScience"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1007\/BF02671898","article-title":"Inhibition of random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) by plant polysaccharides","volume":"14","author":"Pandey","year":"1996","journal-title":"Plant Mol. Biol. Report."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"67","DOI":"10.2985\/026.018.0109","article-title":"Miscellaneous chromosome numbers in Opuntieae Dc. (Cactaceae) with a compilation of counts for the group","volume":"18","author":"Majure","year":"2012","journal-title":"Haseltonia"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Hunt, N., and Taylor, D.R. (2002). On the evolution of the North American Opuntioideae. Studies in the Opuntioideae (Cactaceae), DH Books. [1st ed.]."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.2307\/2805484","article-title":"Chromosome numbers in some cacti of Western North America II","volume":"25","author":"Pinkava","year":"1973","journal-title":"Brittonia"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1033","DOI":"10.1007\/s10722-006-9196-z","article-title":"Genome sizes and ploidy levels in Mexican cactus pear species Opuntia (Tourn.) Mill. series Streptacanthae Britton et Rose, Leucotrichae DC., Heliabravoanae Scheinvar and Robustae Britton et Rose","volume":"54","author":"Segura","year":"2007","journal-title":"Genet. Resour. Crop Evol."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"454","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1471-8286.2006.01615.x","article-title":"Primer note: Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers in Galapagos prickly pear (Opuntia) cactus species","volume":"7","author":"Helsen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Mol. Ecol. Notes"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"327","DOI":"10.17660\/ActaHortic.2011.918.42","article-title":"Identification of microsatellite loci in Opuntia spp. and their characterization in cultivars and species","volume":"28","author":"Erre","year":"2011","journal-title":"Acta Hortic."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s00606-008-0064-5","article-title":"Low levels of genetic differentiation between Opuntia echios varieties on Santa Cruz (Galapagos)","volume":"279","author":"Helsen","year":"2009","journal-title":"Plant Syst. Evol."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1007\/s00606-010-0351-9","article-title":"Microsatellite markers help to assess genetic diversity among Opuntia ficus-indica cultivated genotypes and their relation with related species","volume":"290","author":"Caruso","year":"2010","journal-title":"Plant Syst. Evol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"146","DOI":"10.1007\/s11105-015-0908-4","article-title":"Genetic diversity, genotype discrimination, and population structure of Mexican Opuntia sp., determined by SSR markers","volume":"34","author":"Samah","year":"2016","journal-title":"Plant Mol. Biol. Report."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"L\u00f3pez-Vinyallonga, S., Soriano, I., Susanna, A., Montserra, J.M., Roquet, C., and Garcia-Jacas, N. (2015). The polyploid series of the Achillea millefolium aggregate in the Iberian Peninsula investigated using microsatellites. PLoS ONE, 10.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0129861"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Rohlf, F.J. (2002). NTSY-SPC Numerical Taxonomy System, Exter Software."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"209","article-title":"The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach","volume":"27","author":"Mantel","year":"1967","journal-title":"Cancer Res."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Vekemans, X. (2002). AFLP-SURV 1.0, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles. Distributed by the author: Laboratoire de G\u00e9n\u00e9tique et Ecologie V\u00e9g\u00e9tale."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"288","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1471-8286.2005.01155.x","article-title":"Genalex 6: Genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research","volume":"6","author":"Peakall","year":"2005","journal-title":"Mol. Ecol. Notes"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2537","DOI":"10.1093\/bioinformatics\/bts460","article-title":"GenAlEx 6.5: Genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research\u2014An update","volume":"28","author":"Peakall","year":"2012","journal-title":"Bioinformatics"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"479","DOI":"10.1093\/genetics\/131.2.479","article-title":"Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: Application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data","volume":"131","author":"Excoffier","year":"1992","journal-title":"Genetics"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"564","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1755-0998.2010.02847.x","article-title":"Arlequin suite ver 3.5: A new series of programs to perform population genetics analyses under Linux and Windows","volume":"10","author":"Laurent","year":"2010","journal-title":"Mol. Ecol. Resour."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3966","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms12063966","article-title":"Applications and Implications of Neutral versus Non-neutral Markers in Molecular Ecology","volume":"12","author":"Kirk","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Mol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"639","DOI":"10.1051\/forest:2007042","article-title":"Origins and diversity of the Portuguese Landrace of Eucalyptus globulus","volume":"64","author":"Freeman","year":"2007","journal-title":"Ann. For. Sci."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"67","DOI":"10.17660\/ActaHortic.2015.1067.8","article-title":"Difference in the invasive potential of Opuntia genus inhabiting the south of Iberian Peninsula","volume":"1067","author":"Blasco","year":"2015","journal-title":"Acta Hortic."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"49","article-title":"Verification of the apomictic origin of cactus pear (Opuntia spp. Cactaceae) seedlings of open pollinated and crosses from Central Mexico","volume":"4","year":"2001","journal-title":"JPACD"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1058","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jaridenv.2009.05.010","article-title":"Diversity and spatial distribution of Opuntia spp. in the Mediterranean Basin","volume":"73","author":"Erre","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Arid Environ."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.17660\/ActaHortic.2002.575.39","article-title":"Investigations on variability in the genus Opuntia as fruit crop for genetic improvement","volume":"575","author":"Chessa","year":"2002","journal-title":"Acta Hortic."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"886","DOI":"10.2307\/4088163","article-title":"Polymerase-Chain-Reaction (PCR) analysis of microsatellites: A new approach to studies of genetic relationships in birds","volume":"109","author":"Ellegren","year":"1992","journal-title":"Auk"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"349","DOI":"10.1139\/g95-045","article-title":"An evaluation of sequence tagged microsatellite site markers for genetic analysis within Citrus and related species","volume":"38","author":"Kijas","year":"1995","journal-title":"Genome"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2242","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1061421","article-title":"Rapid diversification of a species-rich genus of neotropical rain forest trees","volume":"293","author":"Richardson","year":"2001","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"227","DOI":"10.1017\/S0014479716000211","article-title":"Above-ground biomass estimation of Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. for forage crop in a Meditterranean environment by using non-destructive methods","volume":"54","author":"Reis","year":"2018","journal-title":"Exp. Agric."}],"container-title":["Agronomy"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4395\/8\/4\/55\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:01:27Z","timestamp":1760194887000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4395\/8\/4\/55"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,20]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,4]]}},"alternative-id":["agronomy8040055"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/agronomy8040055","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-4395"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2073-4395","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,4,20]]}}}