SSR assessment of the genetic diversity of emmer wheat with emphasis on Iranian landraces (Triticum dicoccon Schrank)

Abstract: The cultivation of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccon Schrank) in Iran has been decreased and limited to the marginal agricultural lands of western parts of the country. In the present study, 40 emmer wheat accessions including 13 Iranian landraces and 27 wild and domesticated accessions obtained from CIMMYT, were evaluated for genetic diversity using 24 SSR and four EST-SSR markers, distributed over all the chromosomes. The number of detected alleles was 168 (for all the studied accessions) and 84 (for the Iranian landraces), with average polymorphic information contents of 0.61 and 0.30, respectively. Based on the allelic information and cluster analysis, wild emmer wheats were more variable than domestic emmers and the Iranian emmer landraces had low genetic variability making an isolated cluster distinct from the domesticated emmers of Transcaucasia. The low genetic diversity in Iranian emmer landraces may be due to genetic drift and decreased cultivation area during the past years proving a need to manage emmer wheat genetic resources in Iran towards increasing its genetic diversity, breeding and conservation.

Keywords Genetic diversity  Iran  SSR marker  Triticum dicoccon  T. dicoccoides