study on morphological diversity in iranian wild wheat (aegilops tauschii) populations and their responses to yellow rust, pathotype 134e134a+ at seedling stage

in order to study genetic diversity of aegilops tauschii populations, 188 populations of national plant gene bank collection of iran were evaluated for morphological traits according to ipgri descriptors in research station of national plant gene bank. moreover, 100 out of 188 populations were evaluated in research station of seed and plant improvement institute for resistance to yellow rust, pathotype 134e134a+. according to their origins, populations were grouped in two clusters and this analysis separated populations in two centers of diversity and margin of diversity groups. all populations were separated in two subspecies, tauschii and strangulata, based on two first factors. factor analysis could not grouped all populations based on geographic distribution. coefficient of variance and shnon-weaver were calculated and the highest value for shanon-weaver index was determined in glum color and the highest value for c.v was determined in seed number per spike and plant height. using discriminant analysis, ae. tauschii accessions were allocated in two subspecies, namely,tauschii and strangulata. the results of yellow rust resistance evaluation showed that 76% of populations were resistant at seedling stage.