Investigation of intra-specific variation in Agropyron elongatum L. using biochemical (proteins) marker

Agropyron is one of the most resistant plant species to biotic and abiotic stresses. It has important role to produce forage yield in rangelands. The most important part of breeding process is to understand the genetic diversity to classify populations for selecting the suitable parents. In this research, protein patterns of 17 populations of A. elongatum L. were used to determine genetic diversity. After extraction of leaf proteins, concentration of proteins were identified by Bradford method and banding pattern of the populations were determined by SDS- PAGE technique. Proteins were stained by silver nitrate. In order to analysis electrophoretic data, presence and absence of the protein bands were scored as one and zero respectively. Numbers of bands were counted for each population. Eleven protein bands were observed in studied populations. Populations G5, G6 and G16 showed the most protein bands while G15 showed the least protein bands. Cluster analysis was computed based on coefficient of Jaccard and the populations were divided into three groups. Regarding the genetic distance of the studied populations, crossing of G15 with G6 and G9 with G6, populations are recommendable in breeding programs.