Investigation on genetic diversity in Triticum turgidum L. var. durum using agro-morphological characters and molecular markers

Shadi Heidari; Reza Azizinezhad; Reza Haghparast

Shadi Heidari Department of Plant Breeding, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Reza Azizinezhad Department of Plant Breeding, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Reza Haghparast Department of Plant Breeding, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Keywords: Durum wheat, agro-morphological traits, ISSR marker, genetic diversity, multivariate statistics methods

Abstract

The present study was carried out to assess the genetic diversity in durum wheat genotypes under rainfed and irrigation conditions in dryland agricultural research institute (DARI) during the 2011-13 cropping seasons. Results of multivariate analysis revealed that the number of fertile spikes, number of grain per spike and days to physiological maturity were highly effective on grain yield under both conditions. A clustering analysis based on both agro-morphological and molecular characters indicated a good level of genetic diversity. Low correlation was found between the diversity obtained by markers and the agro-morphological traits. The Sardari genotype had the maximum genetic distance from other genotypes in the agro-morphological analysis. The average polymorphic percentage for inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers was 83.46%. Primers, IS6, IS25, IS14 and IS27 had the highest resolving power. Maximum genetic distance among the genotypes with the Jaccard similarity (0.314) was between G6 (19EM84859) and G17 (19E-M142070). The findings would help selecting suitable genotypes for enhancing the yield of durum wheat.