Phylogenetic and Taxonomic Relationship of Turkish Wild andCultivated Emmer (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides) Revealed by iPBS-retrotransposons Markers

Abstract

Wild emmer (Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides) is the progenitor of cultivated wheat. Turkey is the main center of wheat and plays a vital role in the spread of various crops among the continents. Karacadağ region is considered as the domestication center of wheat and still, hundreds of landraces are prevalent. A total of 29 wild emmer landraces, 4 cultivated emmer wheat (T. turgidum ssp. dicoccum) and five durum wheat (T. turgidum ssp. durum) cultivars were investigated for the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship using the iPBS-retrotransposons markers. Mean polymorphism and polymorphic information contents (PIC) were 87.85% and 0.660, respectively. Mean effective numbers of alleles (1.961), Shannon's Information Index (0.682) and gene diversity (0.489) reflected the occurrence of a great level of variations. T17 and Chermik- 1 genotypes were found much distinct and breeding valuable genotypes for wheat breeding. The unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) divided all genotypes by their genetic makeup and geographical locations. Among 3 species, UPGMA based clustering clearly separated the durum wheat from wild emmer and cultivated emmer wheat. Results are clearly supported by the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and model-based structure algorithm. Information provided herein comprehensively reflected the power of iPBS-retrotransposons for the diversity and phylogenetic relationship investigation and reflected that this marker system can be effectively applied to investigate phylogenetic and taxonomic relationship in any crop due to its universal nature.