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The knowledge about genetic diversity in the wild relatives of wheat provides useful information for breeding programs and gene pool management. In the present study, the genetic diversity among some of the cultivated wheat accessions and wild relatives belonging to T. aestivum, T. durum, T. urartu, Ae. tauschii and Ae. speltoides species was evaluated using 15 CBDP primers. A total of 141 bands amplified, which all of them were polymorphic. The average of polymorphic information content (PIC = 0.48) and resolving power (Rp = 10.67) revealed high efficiency of these markers to further genetic diversity assay. Furthermore, the average percentage polymorphic loci (PPL), number of observed (Na) and effective (Ne) alleles, Shannon’s information index (I), and gene diversity (H) are 72.48%, 1.44, 1.64, 0.38 and 0.26, respectively. These were coincided in essence with the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) results, indicating that 63 and 37% of genetic variation were found within different species, respectively. Genetic relationships inferred from a nighbour-joining dendrogram clustered accessions into main three groups. This grouping pattern was matched with the groups obtained by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), revealing all accessions grouped based on their genomic constitution. Taken together, our results suggest CBDP markers will be useful for genetic diversity and phylogenetic studies in the domesticated and wild relatives of wheat. Hence, the use of this technique in other breeding programs such as, QTL mapping and construction of linkage maps are recommended.

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Genetic variation, population structure and linkage disequilibrium in 144 durum wheat genotypes, mainly belonged to different geographic regions of Iran, has been studied in this research. Genotyping of population carried out by Illumina Infinium 15K array, consisting of 13006 SNP markers. Polymorphism information content (PIC) ranged from 0.08 to 0.37, with a mean value of 0.26. Pairwise kinship coefficients among genotypes showed that 58.85% of the values were zero and only about one percent of the coefficients were larger than 0.5, indicating that there was a poor relatedness among the genotypes. We identified six main subgroups within the population inferred by STRUCTURE analysis. The subgroups were somewhat separated based on geographical origins. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) indicated that the first two principal coordinates explained 16.35 and 7.52% of the total genetic variance among the genotypes, respectively. The results of this research indicated that SNP markers are efficient tools for genetic variation characterization, and population structure studies of wheat genotypes and can be used in selection of genotypes as crossing parents and marker-assisted selection in breeding programs.

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This research conducted out to investigate genetic control of root traits and indices, water use efficiency and transpiration efficiency using genome wide association study. 3321 SNP markers with at least 5% minor frequency for alleles along with a mixed linear model on evaluated traits applied to association analysis in a structured population (112 genotypes in three subpopulations). Seminal roots were associated with two markers on 2A and 1B chromosomes. But the length of extended roots was under control of 1A and 6B chromosomes. Some markers on 2B and 5B chromosomes were significant with root dry weight. The volume of roots was associated to a marker on 7B chromosome. Root surface and diameter also were under genetic control. Twenty markers were associate to water use efficiency, eleven of them on genome A (1A, 2A, 3A, 5A and 6A) and nine on genome B (2B, 3B and 4B). Genetic control of transpiration efficiency was in association with 2A, 3A, 6A, 2B and 3B chromosomes. Genomic selection is an efficient strategy for early screening of segregated population in breeding programs when just few markers determine majority of variation for a phenotypic trait.

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Considering the importance of wheat, it is very important to identify the expressed proteins in the different stages of growth for improvements and enhancing the efficiency of production. The stage between germination and tillering is called leaf development. In the leaf development stage, the seed embryo has three primate cells of leaf that they start to divide after the growth of meristem of stem’s peak starts to germinate and it contributes to emergence of a new leaf. The sampling was happened in three stages: one leaf, two leaves, and three leaves. The proteins were extracted according to TCA-acetone method from the wheat leaf samples. They were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis later. 360 repeatable protein spots were identified with by analyzing the gels extracted from two-dimensional electrophoresis. From this number, 31 protein spots indicated significant changes in 5% level in the different stages of leaf development. 55% of identified proteins indicated the decrease of expression and 19% shows the increase in expression and 26% of identified proteins did not have regular and significant changes. Finally, each protein spot with meaningful changes, regarding the molecule weight, isoelectric point, the shape of spot and with search in related literature and uniprot website, was identified possibly. The results showed that a vast range of metabolic activities including photosynthesis, breathing, proteins, biosynthesis, proteins transformation, assembly and packing of proteins, carbohydrates, biosynthesis, message translation system, detoxification, and genetic fundamental procedures (replication, duplication and translation) were changed during the different stages of leaf development. Most proteins showed the decrease of expression, were from chloroplast enzymes and mitochondrial enzymes. And most proteins that had increasing change procedure were from healing and protective proteins.

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In this study, phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships between wild and cultivated species of  Triticum L. and Aegilops L., were studied using karyotype analysis. For each population, three metaphase cells was prepared and karyotype traits were calculated. A significant difference was observed between the species for all the traits evaluated. The results showed that the Triticum L. and Ae. speltoides have higher chromosomes than other species.  Ae. umbllulata revealed the highest ratio of the arms and the lowest centromeric index. Cluster analysis of species based on karyotypic traits was able to distinguish species of the Aegilops L. and Triticum L. Although Ae. speltoides were placed in Triticum L. cluster. The species were classified in different subgroups according to their genome. Based on discriminant analysis, genotypes of Ae. tauschii, Ae. umbllulata, Ae. triuncialis, Ae. cylindrical, T. aestivum  and T. turgidum were completely separated. In general, Aegilops species had more developed karyotypes.

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Genetic uniformity is one of the most important prerequisites in micropropagation of plant species. In the present study, the genetic fidelity of 28 plantlets of damask rose(Rosa damascena ) derived from three different media treatments supplemented with various concentrations of Plant Growth regulators(PGRs) was assessed by SCoT and ISSR markers. solid MS medium was used for the establishment stage of explants and regenerated shoots  were subcultured in VS medium supplemented with three different combinations of PGRs. For rooting, the plantlets were subcultured on MS medium supplemented with IAA and IBA and the rooted plants were transferred and acclimated in the greenhouse. Genomic DNA of in vitro raised clones was extracted from young leaf tissues. 20 SCoT and 20 ISSR primers were used to evaluate of the genetic fidelity of in vitro propagated plantlets. Out of 40 primers screened, only 14 SCoT and 11 ISSR primers produced clear and scorable bands. 25 SCoT and ISSR primers amplified 139 loci, of which only 35 bands were polymorphic. The average number of polymorphic bands per primer were 1.5 and 1.3 for SCoT and ISSR markers respectively. Based on the estimated genetic parameters and results of data analysis, in general, a low variability was detected among the tissue culture-raised plantlets. Particularly, the plantlets derived from the media II and III shower a lower variability than those derived from the media I; hence, the media II and III can be successfully employed for the commercial multiplication of damask rose without much risk of genetic instability.  

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The genus of Aegilops is one of the most important wild relatives of wheat, and different species of this genus have a wide distribution in Middle East and West Asia. Knowledge about the genetic diversity of Aegilops species provides useful information which can be exploited for breeding programs of wheat. In this study, genetic diversity of 60 Agilops accessions from three different species were investigated using three different DNA markers. CBDP, SCoT and ISSR primers amplified 130, 135 and 152 polymorphic fragments respectively. The average of polymorphism information content (PIC) for CBDP, SCoT and ISSR primers were 0.37, 0.34 and 0.39 respectively indicated the efficiency and usefulness of the used primers. The neighbor-joining (NJ) based clustering using marker data, classified all 60 accessions into three main groups and the investigated accessions were clustered based on the genetic structure. The results of analysis of molecular variance based on CBDP, ISSR and SCoT data showed that the variance among populations covered 66%, 45% and 42% of total variation respectively. Besides, among all three species, Ae. triuncialis showed the maximum number of private allels indicating its unique genetic background. Our results revealed high levels of genetic diversity within all three species, showing high potential of studied germplasm for using in breeding programs. Further, our findings indicated that all three marker systems were useful techniques for evaluation of genetic diversity, however, CBDP and SCoT markers which are generated from the functional regions of the genomes, would be more useful for evaluation of genetic diversity than random or semi random PCR based markers.
 

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Agilops is one of the most important genetic ancestors of wheat, which is a valuable genetic resource for wheat breeders due to its tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. The main goal of this research was to evaluate the genetic diversity in 89 Aegilops tauschii accessions collected from different regions of Iran and the countries of Turkey, Afghanistan, Armenia, Sweden and Azerbaijan using 32 microsatellite primer pairs. The averages of polymorphic information content (PIC), Marker index (MI), Resolution (RP) indices were equal to 0.81, 1.82 and 1.88, respectively, which indicated that the primers used are suitable with high efficiency for investigating relationships among the accessions of this species. The results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) showed that the first three components explained 41.88% of the total genetic variance changes. Cluster analysis classified the evaluated accessions into four main groups, which was confirmed by the results of principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). According to the cluster grouping pattern, in some cases the accessions with the same geographical origin were placed in separate groups and also the presence of non-Iranian accessions in the group of Iranian accessions was observed. The results of population structure analysis confirmed the populations genetic exchanges and showed that the classification of the studied accessions is independent of their geographical origin. In general, the results showed high genetic diversity among the studied accessions of Ae. tauschii, therefore, the high genetic diversity leads to finding new allelic sources and introducing desirable alleles, which will be of great value to wheat breeders for use in breeding programs.

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