Domestication of Persian Shallot (Allium hirtifolium) as Cultivated Crop

Due to highly consumption of extensive wild germplasm of Allium hirtifolium Boiss (Mooseer) in food and medicinal industry, exploration and domestication process have been done in Golestan province (Gorgan). Economic productions of domesticated Persian Shallot plants need to be improved through breeding process. The successes of domesticated accessions improvement program depend on the available genetic diversity, genetic similarity (genetic distance). In order to determine genetic distance, bulbs of four accessions from different parts of country were planted using a complete block design. Significant differences were observed for growth characters (bulb weight, plant height, leaf length, leaf width, ­­date of bulb germination and bulb yield) at α≤0.01 level. Duncan’s multiple range tests showed that the accession of Persian shallot were significantly different for all evaluated parameters except bulb diameter and leaf length. Cluster analyzing (average linkage method), indicated that the accessions were classified into two main groups and showed significant relationship between genetic diversity and geographical origins. The results suggesting that heterotic effect could be observed from crossing between promising accession of two classified population gating favorable traits for varietal and hybridization programs.