Keeping diversity alive: An analysis of microsatellite diversity in Moroccan durum wheat landraces and varieties

Abstract

Oral Presentation in Troisième edition du Congrès International Amélioration de la Production Agricole (APA3) Settat, Morocco 17-18 Mar 2011

Assessment, conservation and utilization of diversity in local germplasm are a high value for the improvement and efficient genetic diversity maintenance and utilization of plant species. In this study, our goal was to evaluate the level of polymorphism in Moroccan durum wheat germplasm collected from different regions of the country and conserved ex-situ in the National Gene Bank with microsatellite markers and to determine the relationship between 'local landraces, varieties and with accessions from other countries. The collection used in this study contains 520 accessions; 488 accessions are Moroccan landraces and varieties, and 32 accessions are from the Mediterranean Basin. In this analysis, DNA of the tested accessions was extracted and PCR products generated by four different fluorescence dye-labelled primers (microsatellite markers loci: Xgwm99-1AL, Xgwm413-1BS, Xgwm312-2AL, and Xgwm165-4B) were analyzed using ABI 3130XL Genetic Analyzer (DNA Sequencer) available at CNRST - Rabat. This kind of SSR analysis using DNA sequencer was conducted for the first time in Morocco. The captured data was subsequently used to estimate microsatellite sizes by comparing the internal LIZ-500 size standard using GeneMapper v3.5 software (Applied Biosystems). Results indicated that the number of alleles observed at each locus varied considerably, from 10 in the case of Xgwm99-1AL locus to 17 in the case of XgwmI6S-4B locus with a mean of 13.25 over 4 loci. This substantial diversity provides security against biotic and abiotic stresses and allows farmers to exploit the full range of the country's micro-environments and sustainable agriculture in the marginal lands.