Promoting the Use of Common Oat Genetic Resources through Diversity Analysis and Core Collection Construction

Abstract

The assessment of diversity and population structure and construction of a core collection is beneficial for the efficient use and management of germplasm. A unique collection of common oat landraces, cultivated in the temperate climate of central Europe until the end of the twentieth century, is preserved in the Polish gene bank. It consists of 91 accessions that have never been used in breeding programs. In order to optimise the use of this genetic resource, we aimed to: (1) determine genetic and agro-morphological diversity, (2) identify internal genetic variation of the tested accessions, (3) form a core collection and (4) recognise the accessions useful for breeding programs or re-release for cultivation. The collection was screened using ISSR markers (1520 loci) and eight agro-morphological traits. Uniquely, we performed molecular studies based on 24 individuals of every accession instead of bulk samples. Therefore, assessment of the degree of diversity within each population and the identification of overlapping gene pools were possible. The observed internal diversity (Nei unbiased coefficient) was in the range of 0.17–0.31. Based on combined genetic and agro-morphological data, we established the core collection composed of 21 landraces. Due to valuable compositions of important traits, some accessions were also identified as useful for breeding programs. The population structure and principal coordinate analysis revealed two major clusters. Based on the previous results, the accessions classified within the smaller one were identified as obsolete varieties instead of landraces. Our results show that the oat landraces are, in general, resistant to local races of diseases, well adapted to local conditions and, in some cases, yielding at the level of modern varieties. Therefore, in situ conservation of the landraces in the near future may be satisfactory for both farmers and researchers in terms of the genetic resources preservation.

DArTseq Genotypic and Phenotypic Diversity of Barley Landraces Originating from Different Countries

“…Furthermore, the frequency of SNPs in the accession cannot be assessed in this way. Heterogeneity of landraces is consistent both with their definition and with previous results of analyses conducted on a group of individuals representing landraces of self-pollinated cereals [7,60,61]. The obtained results provide an important indication for researchers and breeders that the seed sample obtained from the gene bank will be a mixture of different genotypes.…”

“…Overall, the ideotype is well defined by market needs and regional adaptations [4]. In barley, as in most crops, the current elite cultivars are less genetically diverse than their wild relatives or early domesticated forms at the majority of loci [5][6][7]. Nearly all modern cultivars arose from the reshuffling of selected alleles, leading to a limited number of alleles present within the gene pool [8].…”

Multifaceted Analysis of Barley Landraces Collected during Gene Bank Expeditions in Poland at the End of the 20th Century

“…A good confirmation of this hypothesis may be found in previous results of a differentiation analysis within a collection of common oats landraces originated from the same regions. The low total variation of the collection was accompanied by considerable internal variation of the studied accessions [37][38][39]. Moreover, the level of internal variation of the oat landraces was significantly higher than that found within the modern and historical cultivars [39].…”

Characteristics of Progenies Derived from Bidirectional Avena sativa L. and Avena fatua L. Crosses

“…Previous studies confirm that cultivated oat (A. sativa) has a very narrow gene pool [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In order to extend the genetic variability of oat, interspecies and intergeneric crosses were carried out.…”