Assessment of genetic diversity among Aegilops crassa and Aegilops cylindrica species using SCoT markers

Species belonging to the Aegilops genus are one of the most important genetic resources of wheat. This germplasm due to its breeding potential usually is served in wheat breeding programs. In the present study, genetic diversity among 60 accessions belonging to Ae. crassa and Ae. cylindrica were investigated using start codon targeted polymorphism (SCoT) markers. The obtained banding pattern showed that in total 171 fragments were amplified across all investigated accessions, out of which 156 were polymorphic. The average values for polymorphism information content (PIC), resolving power (Rp), and marker index (MI) indices were estimated as 0.30, 16.27, and 3.18, respectively. The results of molecular analysis of variance (AMOVA) indicated that the most portion of genetic variation was belonged to within species than between them (79% vs. 21%). Based on the genetic variation parameters, Ae. crassa species showed greater levels of genetic variation compared with Ae. cylindrica species. The results of cluster analysis based on Jaccard’s similarity matrix grouped all investigated accessions into two main groups, so that the grouping pattern was in accordance with their genomic constitution. Moreover, the results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) confirmed the grouping pattern obtained by cluster analysis. In conclusion, our results revealed considerable efficiency of SCoT markers in grouping the studied germplasm; hence the use of this marker system could be recommended in other genetic studies.