Aegilops tauschii, the D-genome donor of bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, is a storehouse of genetic diversity, and an important resource for future wheat improvement. Genomic and population analysis of 549 Ae. tauschii and 103 wheat accessions was performed by using 13,135 high quality SNPs. Population structure, principal component, and cluster analysis confirmed the differentiation of Ae. tauschii into two lineages; lineage 1 (L1) and lineage 2 (L2), the latter being the wheat D-genome donor. Lineage L1 contributes only 2.7% of the total introgression from Ae. tauschii for a set of United States winter wheat lines, confirming the great amount of untapped genetic diversity in L1. Lineage L2 accessions had overall greater allelic diversity and wheat accessions had the least allelic diversity. Both lineages also showed intra-lineage differentiation with L1 being driven by longitudinal gradient and L2 differentiated by altitude. There has previously been little reported on natural hybridization between L1 and L2. We found nine putative inter-lineage hybrids in the population structure analysis, each containing numerous lineage-specific private alleles from both lineages. One hybrid was confirmed as a recombinant inbred between the two lineages, likely artificially post collection. Of the remaining eight putative hybrids, a group of seven from Georgia carry 713 SNPs with private alleles, which points to the possibility of a novel L1–L2 hybrid lineage. To facilitate the use of Ae. tauschii in wheat improvement, a MiniCore consisting of 29 L1 and 11 L2 accessions, has been developed based on genotypic, phenotypic and geographical data. MiniCore reduces the collection size by over 10-fold and captures 84% of the total allelic diversity in the whole collection.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used for comparative analysis of genetic variation in 42 sugar beet accessions. A total of 24 polymorphic primers (12 RAPD and 12 ISSR) were used. The RAPD primers generated 204 amplification products and the ISSR primers produced 178 fragments, 190 and 173 of which were polymorphic, respectively. The average polymorphism level with the ISSR markers (97.2%) was higher than that with the RAPD primers (93%). High genetic diversity indices for both marker types (0.86 for RAPD and 0.91 for ISSR) suggested that these methods were equally effective in determining genetic variation in sugar beet accessions. Cluster analysis of the RAPD, ISSR, and combined datasets revealed similar grouping patterns. However, the dendrogram created from analysis of the combined RAPD+ISSR data was more similar to the RAPDonly dendrogram than the ISSR-only analysis, indicating that RAPD could determine genetic diversity with higher resolution than ISSR in the cultivars tested. High correlation between the RAPD and ISSR marker systems was shown using a Mantel test (r = 0.92). Screening a higher number of anonymous loci in sugar beet using these molecular markers will enable the selection of the best parent cultivars for the development of novel varieties.

Diversity analysis was performed among 39 cultivated lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) accessions of Central Asia and Caucasian origin using five highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. A total of 33 alleles determined ranging from 3 to 8 per locus. Estimated gene diversity value for 33 loci was 0.66. Genetic similarity indices among 39 accessions ranged from 0.24 to 1.0. Cluster analysis using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean method classified accessions into six major groups at 0.5 similarity coefficient. More than half accessions from Tajikistan formed large cluster. On the other hand, a few accessions from each country showed unique genotypes. Overall, most of the accessions, except ones with closely related origin, were distinguished by the present high quality DNA fingerprinting. This molecular diversity information gives important basis for conservation strategy in gene bank and exotic germplasm introduction in breeding programs in Central Asia and Caucasian countries.

Background and objectives: Ancient wheat species, einkorn and emmer wheat, are potential healthy food sources for their vitamin and element contents. The aim of this study was to evaluate some elements and vitamin A and B complex of 36 einkorn and 49 emmer wheat advanced lines tested under field conditions. Findings: The results showed that some emmer wheat lines were extremely higher than those from einkorn and durum wheat checks for microelements. The mean concentrations of Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, and Se of the emmer wheat lines were found to be 41.72 AE 3.57, 17.06 AE 0.63, 2.85 AE 0.15, 18.11 AE 0.71, and 0.05 AE 0.00 mg/kg, respectively. In addition, the means of A, B1, B2, B5, and B6 concentrations were determined as 65.48 AE 2.39 lg/kg, 4.22 AE 0.13 mg/kg, 0.36 AE 0.05 mg/kg, 3.60 AE 0.21 mg/kg, and 2.06 AE 0.09 mg/kg, respectively. Conclusions: The emmer wheat lines of 24, 43, 44, and 53 for elemental and 3, 4, 11, 17, and 24 for vitamin A and B complex can be selected for enrichment of the wheat products. Significance and novelty: Superiority of emmer wheat lines in terms of micronutrients and vitamin A and B complex compared to einkorn lines and durum wheat cultivars was obviously demonstrated. K E Y W O R D S einkorn, elements, emmer wheat, vitamins

The genetic relationships among 48 melon (Cucumis melo L.) genotypes collected from various parts of Azerbaijan were determined by comparing their phenotypic and molecular traits. Eleven agromorphological traits and 10 polymorphic inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers were used to define the genetic diversity. Principal component analysis grouped the agromorphological traits into the first four axes, describing 78% of the total variations. The highest genetic variation coefficient was found for yield per hectare (20.32%) and for fruit length (17.35%). Calculated heritability for yield was 0.96. The analysis of morphological traits grouped the accessions into four clusters. The 10 ISSR primers yielded 35 polymorphic alleles, representing 85.4% of all the amplified loci. The average genetic diversity index determined was 0.70. The highest and the lowest similarity indexes were equal to 0.97 and 0.36, respectively. The 48 accessions were grouped into 10 clusters based on ISSR markers. Correlation between distance matrices based on agromorphological traits and ISSR markers was not statistically significant (r = 0.012).