Analysis Of Population Structure and Genetic Diversity and Relationships in Saudi Arabia and Exotic Genotypes of Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Using Genomic Microsatellites Markers

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SULTAN F. ALSHARARI

Abstract

To increase the economic value of crops, understanding population structure and genetic diversity is a very important objective. Loss of genetic diversity has been noted in wheat over the last few decades. The collection of thirteen genotypes from three separate regions, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the USA were used to determine genetic diversity and population structure characteristics to answer this challenge. Using 121 SSR alleles that showed strong polymorphism among genotypes, these genotypes were analyzed. Of the 17 SSR loci, a total of 121 SSR alleles were identified and used to analyze population structure and perform principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Large range of number of different alleles extended from 2 alleles for marker Xgwm631 to 11 alleles for marker Xtaglgap, Xgwm458, Xgwm190, Xgwm46 with an average of 7.12 for all 17 SSR loci. With an average of 0.317, 0.401 and 0.315, respectively, polymorphism information quality (PIC), gene diversity (GD) and minor allele frequency (MAF) ranged from 0.230 to 0.375, 0.260 to 0.500 and 0.150 to 0.460. Results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) agreed with structural analysis. Structure grouped thirteen wheat genotypes into three subpopulations with substantial subpopulation divergence (P > 0.001). Index of fixation (Fst), a population substructure indicator, was 0.283, 0.658 and 0.291 for G1, G2 and G3, respectively. Also, 34% variation among and 66% within populations was recognized by AMOVA. Current investigation has shown high GD among genotypes that can be used in Saudi Arabia to produce superior wheat cultivars with significant agronomic characteristics.


 

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