Genetic Diversity and Grouping of Winter Barley Genotypes for Root Characteristics and ISSR Markers

Determination of genetic diversity level is fundamental for identification of desirable parents to be used in different breeding programs, and molecular markers have been succssfully taken for the analysis of genetic diversity in various crops. The objective of this study was to inversitgate genetic diversity among 28 genotypes of barley using root and shoot characters and 14 ISSR primers through two separate experiments (greenhouse and molecular experiments).

The greenhouse experiment was carried out as randomized complete block design with two replications in the research greenhouse of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Iran. The traits measured in the greenhouse were root dry weight, root volume, shoot dry weight and ratio of root to shoot dry weight. The molecular experiment was conducted to study the diversity of barley genotypes using 14 ISSR primers. The polymorphic information content and marker index were calculated for each ISSR primer.

Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes under study for all traits. According to the mean comparisons, genotypes 3, 5, 9 and 20 had higher mean in terms of all characters. The cluster analysis, based on Ward 's algorithm and Euclidean distance, grouped genotypes in four clusters. Group 3 had the highest mean in terms of all of the studied characters. Out of 14 ISSR primers used, 11 primers generated scorable and appropriate banding pattern. A total of 559 polymorphic bands with 80-3000 bp were produced. Polymorphic information content was estimated to be between 0.116 and 0.252 with the average of 0.187. The marker index ranged from 3.528 to 27.972 with the mean of 9.704. Classification of the studied barley genotypes was conducted by molecular data using neighbor joining algorithm based on distance coefficient of number of differences, which assigned the genotypes into four groups. There was a concordance between the grouping of genotypes based on molecular data and the characters in the greenhouse, but this concordance was not complete. Association analysis of ISSR markers with measured characteristics of barley genotypes showed that ISSR1 and ISSR5 had significant relationship with most of the root and shoot traits.

Highgenetic diversity was observed among barley genotypes with respect to root and shoot traits. The results showed that ISSR primers have the ability to separate barley genotypes from each other. Also, it seems that ISSR markers under study can be used in marker assisted selection of barley genotypes in breeding programs.