Identification and evaluation of genetic diversity in durum wheat landraces from Ardabil province

Iran is one of the world’s centers of diversity for wheat and this country has rich genetic resources for durum wheat، but these genetic resources are under sever genetic erosion and an urgent need is necessary for collecting and protecting them. Therefore 39 landraces of durum wheat were collected from different regions of Ardabil province in 2006 and an experiment was carried out using RCB design with 3 check cultivars. Thirty agronomic، phenologic، morphologic and quality characters were measured. According to the Dorofeev’s classification keys، the landraces were classified in following 11 varieties: melanopus، africanum، albiprovinciale، riechenbachii، leucurum، hordeiform، murcience، melaleucum، albobscurum، boefi and one unknown variety. The results of ANOVA indicated that there were significant differences among landraces in yield، harvest index، 100 kernel weight، plant height، number of seeds per spiklet، days to heading، SDS sedimentation value، awn length، peduncle length and flag leaf length. A MANOVA was performed among 11 varieties and results showed that varieties significantly differ in agronomic traits. Discriminant analysis properly classified varieties into distinct groups however cluster analysis could not do this.