Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Poster Abstract

DISSECTION OF THE ITALIAN DURUM WHEAT GENETIC DIVERSITY BY MEANS OF MAP-BASED SSR PROFILING

MACCAFERRI M.*, SANGUINETI M.C.*, NOLI E.*, DONINI P.**

* Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroambientali, Università di Bologna, Italy

agrostud@agrsci.unibo.it

** National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge, U.K.

durum wheat, genetic diversity, fingerprinting, SSR markers, graphical genotyping

The genetic diversity of durum wheat in Italy has been investigated with SSR and AFLP markers. Dinucleotide SSR markers proved to be highly informative in elucidating genetic relationships among this pool of accessions, due to their relatively high mean number of alleles per locus and PIC values and hence the low level of overall alike in state. Different contributions of the A and B genomes to overall genetic diversity estimates were observed (r = 0.65 between similarity matrices based on the A and B genome, separately); the B genome was characterized by an overall level of polymorphism significantly higher than the A genome. Based on the overall genetic similarity values, cluster and principal coordinate analysis, clear derivation patterns were observed between some important founder genotypes and the corresponding groups of modern derived varieties.

Seventy SSR markers of known map position, distributed over the 14 durum wheat chromosomes, allowed to display genetic relationships among cultivars on a chromosome by chromosome basis. This approach also allowed us to analyse the inheritance of genomic regions (haplotypes) within and between breeding lineages. The relative contribution of each founder to genetic profiles of modern varieties and the frequency and distribution of rare alleles are discussed.

For a selected subset of 28 cultivars, having detailed and reliable pedigree-records, deviations of molecular information from the pedigree based relation are discussed.