Genetic relationships between populations of Aegilops tauschii Coss. (Poaceae) using SCoT molecular markers

The genus Aegilops has an important potential utilization in wheat improvement because of its resistance to different biotic and abiotic stresses and close relation with the cultivated wheat. Aegilops tauschii grows in Iran, westward to Turkey and eastward to Afghanistan and China with a distribution center in the south of Caspian Sea. In spite of its very good biochemical characterization, the knowledge about the DNA variability is very limited and no DNA markers were used to analyses the genomic variability of the populations, up to date. In the present study, genetic diversity of 117 Aegilops tauschii, individuals nine populations were studied using 10 Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) markers. High polymorphic bands (96.33%), polymorphic information content (0.48) and allele number (1.024) showed SCoT as a reliable marker system for genetic analysis in Aegilops tauschii. At the species, the percentage of polymorphic loci [P] was 66.30%, Nei’s gene diversity [H] was 0.35, Shannon index [I] was 0.33 and unbiased gene diversity [UHe] was 0.37. Genetic variation within populations (59%) was higher than among populations (41%) based on analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). We used SCoT molecular marker for our genetic investigation with the following aims: 1— Investigate genetic diversity both among and with date Aegilops tauschii, 2—Identify genetic groups within these nine populations Aegilops tauschii, and 3—produce data on the genetic structure of date Aegilops tauschii populations. The results obtained revealed a high within-population genetic variability.