Genetic Diversity And Its Temporal Changes In Improved Bread Wheat Cultivators Of Morocco

Abstract

Genetic diversity in a set of 20 improved bread wheat cultivars released in Morocco since 1980s, along with 8 exotic bread wheat cultivars, were characterized by employing 14 polymorphic microsatellite markers. A total of 59 alleles (Mean=4.21) in Moroccan cultivars and 53 alleles (Mean=3.78) in exotic cultivars were detected. Genetic diversity at 14 microsatellite loci varied from 0 to 0.895 (Mean=0.576) for 20 Moroccan cultivars and from 0.25 to 0.928 (Mean=0.683) for the exotic cultivars. The genetic distance among the cultivars ranged from 0.143 to 1.00. Using the 14 microsatellite markers, all the bread wheat cultivars could be distinguished for reliable identification, characterization, and diversity analysis. Total number of alleles decreased in the cultivars developed during 1990s (8.3%) compared with that of 1980s. The AMOVA results suggest that change in the cultivar genetic diversity among different decadal groups of bread wheat was very small and non-significant, indicating no significant reduction in over all genetic diversity due to breeding in recent times.