Genetic diversity of some Syrian wheat varieties (Triticum Spp.) using ISSR technique

Abstract

Genetic diversity between eight Syria wheat varieties was studied in order to use them in breeding programs. 19 ISSR primers were used in the analysis of wheat varieties DNA, all used primers produced DNA fragments in all studied varieties. The total number of bands amplified was 238 bands, with an average of 12.53 bands/primer. The total number of polymorphic bands was 236 with an average of 12.42 bands/primer. Only 2 monomorphic bands were detected. The average of polymorphism percentages for the used primers was 99.25 %. The most genetically closer varieties were Cham 3 and Bouhoth 11 with a genetic distance value of 0.690, while the most distant varieties were Cham 3 and Cham 10 with genetic distance of 0.844. The cluster analysis divided the eight varieties into 5 groups. The first group included Goulan 2 only, the second group included Doma 1, the third group included three varieties: Doma4,  Bouhoth 7 and Bouhoth 8, the fourth group included Bouhoth 11 and Cham 3, and the fifth group included Cham 10. These results indicate that the ISSR is an effective tool to determine the genetic diversity between the different wheat varieties, and the high genetic diversity between the analysed varieties indicate also the possibility of using them in the wheat genetic improvement programs.