Morphological spike diversity of Omani wheat

Abstract

Little is known about the diversity of field crops in Oman. The objective of this study therefore was to characterize wheat accessions from this country using individual spikes collected from different wheat cultivation areas. The phenotypic assessment of 15 qualitative and 17 quantitative characters showed variations among Omani wheat landraces. The standardized phenotypic diversity index (H 0 ) was with 0.66 higher for quantitative characters than for qualitative characters (0.52) in tetraploid wheats and with 0.63 and 0.62, respectively, in hexaploid wheats. Overall, the morphological data revealed a surprisingly high diversity among landraces and showed that simple morphological characters can be used for an effective characterization of diversity in Omani wheat.

Variability of pod trichome and agronomic characters of several soybean genotypes

“…The Shanon and Weaver index H' moyen (0.59) reflects the large morphological diversity spikes of this collection. This diversity is close to that obtained by Al Khanjari et al (2008) Concerning the result of PCA we determine the formation of two groups of characters. This reflects a positive correlation between parameters in each group.…”

“…Many studies have thus focused on the characterization of traditional accessions based on agro-morphological characters (Al Khanjari et al 2008;Teklu and Hammer 2008;Surur and Amara-Hajer 2009;Zarkti et al 2012;Geleta and Grausgurber 2013), and on molecular characterization (Zarkti et al 2010;Peleg et al 2011;Oliveira et al 2012;Rekha Malik et al 2013;Medini et al 2014). …”

How diverse a farmer-managed wheat landrace can be?

“…Subsequent to its introduction, both bread and durum wheat germplasm was subjected to evolutionary modifications as a result of natural selection and adaptation (Ali Deb et al, 1992) to the harsh desert environment prevailing in the region, and especially to the agroecological conditions of mountain and desert oases of Oman (Filatenko et al, 2010;Gebauer et al, 2010;Filatenko and Hammer, 2014). Several collecting expeditions by local (AlMaskri et al, 2003;Al-Khanjari et al, 2008) and international (Guarino, 1990) gene hunters succeeded in collecting indigenous wheat and barley (Jaradat et al, 2004) landraces, and identified rare species being conserved in situ in mountain oases. Omani wheat landraces (Triticum spp.)…”

“…Most studies carried out on Omani crop landraces, including wheat and barley, concluded that a large and valuable diversity was available in the country and attributed this large diversity, in part, to the geographic location of the country, its physiography, as well as to germplasm exchange with its ancient trading partners in the Far East, South Asia, East Africa, especially Ethiopia through Yemen, and the larger Middle East (Harlan, 1992;Zohary and Hopf, 2000;Gebauer et al, 2010). Farmers in Oman, typical of subsistence and resource-poor farmers in wheat marginal growing regions, usually grow a mixture of locallyadapted wheat species, including tetraploid and hexploid landraces (Zhang et al, 2006;Al Khanjri et al, 2007); these mixtures occasionally result in hybrid swarms (Mastuoka, 2011) thus generating new diversity and contributing to yield buffering and stability under adverse environmental and management conditions (Al Khanjari et al, 2008). In addition, it is suggested (Zeven, 2000;Tesgaye and Berg, 2007;Karagö z and Zençirçi, 2005;Yedliay et al, 2011) that farmers grow and maintain highly variable wheat landraces to lower the risk of failure under marginal production conditions and to increase food security of isolated communities (Rijal, 2010).…”

“…It was estimated that the land area under wheat landraces in Oman decreased by 75% in a span of 8 years (Al Khanjari et al, 2008). A total of 1,000 ha of land were under wheat cultivation in the 1960s and produced 1,400 tons of grain; however, in 2011, wheat was cultivated on about 640 hectares and produced about 2,100 tons of grain (FAO, 2011); these production figures may reflect replacement of landraces with high yielding wheat varieties and the adoption of improved management practices.…”