Investigation of geographical distribution and genetic diversity of Aegilops cylindrica in Iran

Aegilops cylindrica Host (2n = 4x = 28, DDCC), one of wild relatives of bread wheat, has a wide distribution in Middle East, West Asia. Iran includes large part of the mentioned areas. Geographical distribution studies of 359 collected accessions of Ae. cylindrica held at National Plant Gene Bank of Iran showed that Ae. cylindrica is widely distributed in North, North West and West of Iran but it is rarely distributed in South and East South of Iran. All collected accessions were evaluated for morphological traits according to IPGRI descriptors. Rachis width, spikelet seed number and plant height showed the largest phenotype alterations coefficient among quantitative traits. Also, growth habit showed the largest standard diversity index in qualitative traits. Accessions of different provinces were significantly different in the morphological traits. Cluster analysis for morphological traits identified three different groups of provinces. Interestingly, accessions of the first group were geographically distributed in North and North West provinces of Iran that are centers of diversity for Ae. cylindrica in Iran. In addition, provinces that are out of diversity center were placed in the second group. Likewise, Fars province was placed in the third group because of its difference in morphologically traits. Also, results of multi dimensional scaling analysis were coordinated to cluster analysis results. Therefore, these data indicated that there is a significant relationship between morphological diversities and geographical distribution of Ae. cylindrica in Iran.