Detection of genetic diversity in Libyan wheat genotypesusing wheat microsatellite markers

Twenty-four wheat microsatellites (WMS) wereused to estimate the extent of genetic diversity among 15 Libyanwheat genotypes. The WMS used determined 26 loci located on 20different chromosomes, and were capable of detecting 116 alleles withan average of 4.5 alleles per locus. Only two markers located on 2DSand 4DL, were monomorphic. The results indicated that the B genome(5.9 alleles per locus) was more variable than the A and Dgenomes (4.1 and 2.7 alleles per locus, respectively).Furthermore, the results obtained suggest that a relatively smallnumber of primers can be used to distinguish all genotypes used andto estimate their genetic diversity. Genetic dissimilarity valuesbetween genotypes, calculated by the WMS derived data, were used toproduce a dendrogram. The diversity within the analysed germplasm isdiscussed.