Assessment of EST-microsatellites markers for discrimination and genetic diversity in bread and durum wheat landraces from Afghanistan

Kamel Chabane, Osman Abdalla, Haneen Sayed, Jan Valkoun. (24/1/2007). Assessment of EST-microsatellites markers for discrimination and genetic diversity in bread and durum wheat landraces from Afghanistan. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 54, pp. 1073-1080.

Abstract

Accurate and reliable means for identification are necessary to assess the discrimination between landraces of tetraploid wheat [T.turgidum L. subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn.] and hexaploid wheat (T. aestivum L. em. Thell.). In Afghanistan, farmers usually cultivate mixed landraces, and thus distinction between bread and durum is difficult. A set of 18 microsatellites derived from the DuPont EST-database were used to describe genetic diversity in a sample of 82 Afghan wheat landraces. A total of 101 alleles were detected, with allele number per locus ranging from 2 to 13, and a mean allele number of 6.31. The percentage of polymorphic loci was 89%. The EST-SSRs markers showed different level of gene diversity: the highest Polymorphism Information Content value (0.921) was observed with DuPw 221. Our results demonstrated that with a reasonable number of expressed sequences target microsatellites (EST-SSRs) it is possible to discriminate between T. durum and T. aestivum species of wheat germplasm. Our results showed that EST-databases could be a useful source for species-specific markers and have the potential for new genic microsatellites markers that could enhance screening germplasm in gene banks.