Evaluation of Agro-Morphological Diversity in Wild Relatives of Wheat Collected in Iran

In this study, a core collection of 180 Aegilops and Triticum accessions belonging to six diploid (T. boeoticum Bioss., T. urartu Gandilyan., Ae. speltoides Tausch., Ae. tauschii Coss., Ae. caudata L. and Ae. umbellulata Zhuk.), five tetraploid (T. durum, Ae. neglecta Req. ex Bertol., Ae. cylindrica Host. and Ae. crassa Boiss) and one hexaploid (T. aestivum L.) species collected from different regions of Iran were evaluated using 20 agro-morphological characters. Statistical analysis showed significant differences among accessions. The Shannon-Weaver (HʹSW) and Nei’s (HʹN) genetic diversity indices disclosed intermediate to high diversity for most characters in both Aegilops and Triticum core sets. In factor analysis, the first five components justified 82.17% of the total of agro-morphological variation. Based on measured characters, the 180 accessions were separated into two major groups by cluster analysis. Furthermore, based on the 2D-plot generated using two discriminant functions, different species were separated into six groups, so that distribution of species accorded with their genome construction. Overall, our results revealed considerable levels of genetic diversity among studied Iranian Aegilops and Triticum accessions, which can open up new avenues for rethinking the connections between wild relatives to explore valuable agronomic traits for the improvement and adaptation of wheat.