Preliminary characterization for grain quality traits and high and low molecular weight glutenins subunits composition of durum wheat landraces from Iran and Mexico

Saharan wheats have been studied particularly from a botanical viewpoint. Genotypic identification, classification and genetic diversity studies to date were essentially based on the morphology of the spike and grain. For this, the allelic variation at the glutenin loci was studied in a set of Saharan bread and durum wheats from Algerian oases where this crop has been traditionally cultivated. The high molecular weight and low molecular weight glutenin subunit composition of 40 Saharan bread and 30 durum wheats was determined by SDS-PAGE. In Saharan bread wheats 32 alleles at the six glutenin loci were detected, which in combination resulted in 36 different patterns including 17 for HMW and 23 for LMW glutenin subunits. For the Saharan durum wheats, 29 different alleles were identified for the five glutenin loci studied. Altogether, 29 glutenin patterns were detected, including 13 for HMW-GS and 20 for LMW-GS. Three new alleles were found in Saharan wheats, two in durum wheat at the Glu-B1 and Glu-B3 loci, and one in bread wheat at the Glu-B1 locus. The mean indices of genetic variation at the six loci in bread wheat and at the five loci in durum wheat were 0.59 and 0.63, respectively, showing that Saharan wheats were more diverse. This information could be useful to select Saharan varieties with improved quality and also as a source of genes to develop new lines when breeding for quality.

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Unlocking the Patterns of the Tunisian Durum Wheat Landraces Genetic Structure Based on Phenotypic Characterization in Relation to Farmer’s Vernacular Name

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11040634 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 634

Author(s):

Cyrine Robbana ◽

Zakaria Kehel ◽

Karim Ammar ◽

Carlos Guzmán ◽

M’Barek Ben Naceur ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Structure ◽

Durum Wheat ◽

Smallholder Farmers ◽

Phenotypic Variability ◽

Phenotypic Characterization ◽

Ecological Niches ◽

Dry Conditions ◽

New Gene ◽

Wheat Landraces ◽

Durum Wheat Landraces

During the 1970s, Tunisian durum wheat landraces were replaced progressively by modern cultivars. These landraces are nowadays maintained by smallholder farmers in some ecological niches and are threatened gradually by extinction resulting in the narrowing of the genetic diversity. This study aims to investigate patterns of phenotypic variability using twelve quantitative traits in a panel of 189 durum wheat landraces and seven checks, based on farmer’s population name attribution and genetic structure. Our results showed high phenotypic variability among and within landraces and checks for ten out of twelve studied traits. The principal components analysis showed similar grouping using farmers name attribution and genetic structure using K = 6. These results confirmed the identification of a new gene pool in the oases of Tunisia, represented by the sub-population Jenah Zarzoura and the robustness and high relationships between phenotypic and genome-wide genetic structure using DArTseq method. These findings will enhance the conservation efforts of these landraces and their use in breeding efforts at national and international levels to adapt to dry conditions.

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