Analysis Of Genetic Diversity And Population Structure Of Tetraploid Wheat Accessions Using Simple Sequence Repeat (Ssr) Markers

Abstract

Wheat Is One Of The Most Important Cereals World-Wide And It Is Grown In Many Areas. Inorder To Assess The Genetic Diversity And Population Structure Of Tetraploid Wheat In Ethiopiaand Infer The Possible Breeding, Conservation And Management Measures, 102 Tetraploid Wheat Germplasm Accessions Representing Five Populations Were Analyzed Using 11 Simple Sequence Repeat (Ssr) Markers. A Wide Range Of Diversity Indices Including Number Of Alleles, Effective Number Of Alleles, Shannon's Information Index, Percentage Of Polymorphic Loci (%P) And Polymorphic Information Content (Pic) Were Computed. All Ssr Markers Were Highly Polymorphic, Resulting An Average Of Polymorphic Information Content (Pic) Value Of 0.69 With An Overall Mean Of 7 Alleles Per Locus. The Populations Showed A High Meanobserved Heterozygosity (0.47), Expected Heterozygosity (0.6), Shannon?�?S Information Index (1.20) And Percentage Of Polymorphic Loci (94%). Analysis Of Molecular Variance (Amova)Statistically Significant High Genetic Differentiation (Fst = 0.22) Where 78% Of The Total Genetic Variation Was Accounted Within Populations And 22% For The Genetic Variationaccounted Among Populations. Gene Flow Accounted To 0.89. The Highest And Lowest Pairwise Genetic Differentiation And Nei?�?S Genetic Distance Were Observed Between The Emmer Populations And International Durum Wheat Lines, And Oromia And Amhara Regions, Respectively. The Neighbor-Joining (Nj) Clustering And Principal Coordinate Analysis (Pcoa) Grouped The Accessions Into Two Major Clusters The Emmer Population On One Hand And Durum Population On The Other Hand. In Addition, Bayesian Model-Based Population Structure Analysis Revealed Four Genetic Groups With Genetic Admixture. Overall, This Study Confirmed The Existence Of High Genetic Diversity In Tetraploid Wheat Which May Use As A Source For The Improvement Of Wheat Through Selection And Conservation. Tetraploid Wheat Germplasm From Amhara, Oromia And Cimmyt Showed High G