Characterizing Croatian Wheat Germplasm Diversity and Structure in a European Context by DArT Markers

Abstract

Narrowing the genetic base available for future genetic progress is a major concern to plant breeders. In order to avoid this, strategies to characterize and protect genetic diversity in regional breeding pools are required. In this study, 89 winter wheat cultivars released in Croatia between 1936 and 2006 were genotyped using 1,229 DArT (diversity array technology) markers to assess the diversity and population structure. In order to place Croatian breeding pool (CBP) in a European context, Croatian wheat cultivars were compared to 523 European cultivars from seven countries using a total of 166 common DArT markers. The results show higher genetic diversity in the wheat breeding pool from Central Europe (CE) as compared to that from Northern and Western European (NWE) countries. The most of the genetic diversity was attributable to the differences among cultivars within countries. When the geographical criterion (CE vs. NWE) was applied, highly significant difference between regions was obtained that accounted for 16.19% of the total variance, revealing that the CBP represents genetic variation not currently captured in elite European wheat. The current study emphasizes the important contribution made by plant breeders to maintaining wheat genetic diversity and suggests that regional breeding is essential to the maintenance of this diversity. The usefulness of open-access wheat datasets is also highlighted.

Genetic Diversity within a Global Panel of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum) Landraces and Modern Germplasm Reveals the History of Alleles Exchange

“…However, diversity per se is of limited use (Frankel et al, 1995; Royo et al, 2009; Novoselović et al, 2016). It is instead to the breeders’ advantage to know which ideal sources of diversity should be integrated within each program to better target their crossing schemes.…”

Wheat tandem kinases provide insights on disease‐resistance gene flow and host–parasite co‐evolution

“…Population genetic studies are essential for understanding the evolution of wheat under natural hybridization, allopolyploid speciation, natural selection, domestication, and other factors (Fahima et al ., , ; Novoselović et al ., ; Perez‐Lara et al ., ; Wang et al ., ; Eltaher et al ., ). Studies that are based on large amounts of high‐throughput genetic markers are preferable as they are aiming to characterize the general pattern of gene flow between and within populations.…”

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Photosynthetic efficiency parameters as indicators of agronomic traits of winter wheat cultivars in different soil water conditions

“…Selection of cultivars (A1-A10) tested in this experiment was based on different levels of diversity and genetic variability (NOVOSELOVIĆ et al, 2016). They are also present in wheat production in many countries of Southeast Europe (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Kosovo, Serbia, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey) and tested in conditions of multienvironmental field trials (DREZNER et al, 1999;ŠPANIĆ et al, 2011).…”