Molecular analysis of diversity of diploid Triticum species in Iran using ISSR markers

Genetic diversity of wild wheats germplasm especially those growing in center of origin is of critical value for breeding proposes. In this study 89 accessions belonging to the three species ( T. monococcum , T. urartu , T. boeoticum ), collected all around Iran, were analysed using nine inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers. Polymerase chain reactions amplified 170 DNA fragments, from which, 156 (91.2 %) were polymorphic. The highest and lowest genetic polymorphism were detected within T. boeoticum (90 %) and T. monococcum (68.62) respectively. From geographic viewpoint, the western accessions showed the highest (86.44) and the southwestern accessions the lowest (74.7) ISSR polymorphism. According to the Neighbor Joining dendrogram and the principal coordinate analysis 2D plot, all accessions were divided into two clusters: accessions of T. urartu in one cluster and accessions of T. boeoticum and T. monococcum in another. Within these clusters, subgroupings related to the geographic distribution were evident. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 0.82 of genetic diversity resulted from the intra-specific variation. AMOVA results attributed 0.93 of T. boeoticum and 0.82 of T. urartu genetic diversity to the within regions variations. Based on the results of this study, it seems that Triticum represented in Iran by two diploid species. This study showed a high level of genetic diversity within the Iranian diploid Triticum species that can be of interest for crops improvement.