Abstract

The genetic diversity of 141 Ethiopian durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) landrace collections and 19 improved varieties was analyzed using primers of 12 SSR markers in 2015. The experiment was conducted at the National Agricultural Biotechnology Laboratory, Holetta, Ethiopia. The difference between the longest and shortest amplified fragment size ranged from 100 to 350 bp. The highest variation in fragment size was observed for primer CFD 257 (250-350 bp) and the lowest was for primer CFA2278 (100-180 bp). All the 12 SSR primer pairs were polymorphic and generated a total of 74 alleles. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 for primers WMS 375, WMS 493, and CFD257 to 9 for primers WMS53, with a mean of 6 alleles per locus. Some loci were more monomorphic (WMS493, WMS516, and WMS532) with less gene flow than other loci such as WMS269 and WMS234. Based on the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), lower level (19%) of variation was observed among populations and higher level (81%) within population. The dendogram of cluster analysis based on neighbor-joining algorithm categorized the 160 durum wheat genotypes into three major clusters. Cluster I consisted 47, Cluster II 64, and Cluster III 49 genotypes. Based on the magnitude of the genetic distance (GD), more differentiations were observed between accessions in populations originated from different geographical regions in Ethiopia.

Keywords: Durum wheat; Genetic diversity; Landrace; SSR marker