Diversity of Agro-Morphological Traits in Populations of Einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum and Triticum urartu) under Normal and Water Deficit Stress Conditions

In order to study the genetic diversity of agro-morphological traits and the effect of water deficit stress on these characters in 41 populations of Triticum boeoticum and Triticum urartu, an experiment was conducted as a split-plot based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among populations for all of the studied traits. Group comparison between T. boeoticum and T. urartu species were significant in term of most traits. Populations Tb.216, Tb.176, Tb.200, Tb.320, Tb.120 and Tb.3 showed the highest spike length, number of spikelet per spike, grain yield and days to heading, so were identified as superior populations. Significant and positive correlations of grain yield with number of grains per spike, plant height and leaf width were observed in both conditions. Cluster analysis based on all traits, categorized the populations into two groups. In addition, with regard to altitude and latitude, populations under study were categorized in two groups. In general, results of this study showed genetic diversity in wild einkorn species collected from eco-geographical regions of Iran was affected by agro-morphological traits. Overall, Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces regarded as better regions in terms of genetic diversity.