Effects of Selection on Genetic Parameters of Secale montanum Based on Seed Storage Protein Marker

Secale montanum is one of the important perennial grasses growingnaturally in arid to semiarid pastures and rangelands, with a typical Mediterraneanclimate, in northern and western Iran at altitudes of 800-2900 m. In this paper, seedstorage protein profiles of nine wild populations of S. montanum from differentregions of Iran and their phenotypically superior progenies as well as a multi-originpolycross (PLC) were studied. High levels of polymorphism were observed over allpopulations with the average number of bands and average heterozygosity. Superiorprogeny of different populations showed less genetic variability than wild parents interms of band diversity, whereas PLC samples showed extremely high values ofgenetic parameters. Two locally common bands were observed in almost all wildparent populations, which are missing in superior progeny of different populationsand PLC. These results provide highly support for the hypothesis that neutral geneticdiversity has been reduced or inadvertently lost via artificial selection. Among wildparent populations and their superior progenies significant differences were observedin expected heterozygosity suggesting that more intensive breeding practices mayhave resulted in a further erosion of genetic variability. Neighbor-joining clusteranalysis showed that wild populations and the phenotypically superior progeny ofdifferent populations were separated into two groups. This suggests that foundereffects and subsequent selection have had more effect on the genetic differentiationbetween these accessions than geographical separation. This technology, seed storageprotein profiling, has great potential for use in breeding programmes.