AFLP Fingerprinting of Old, Modern and Landraces of Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum Desf.) in Syria

The heterogeneity among ten most widely grown old, recently released varieties and landraces of Syrian durum wheat was studied using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. The 11 primer combinations used in this study amplified 533 scorable AFLP loci of which 141 (26.5%) were polymorphic. The values of average polymorphic information content (PIC) for these markers were estimated to be 0.34. The dissimilarity (D) values ranged from 0.120 to 0.729 with an average 0.421. The PCA analysis with the entire AFLP data separated the landraces from the durum wheat cultivars. The low PIC and dissimilarity values among modern varieties might be attributed to the rigorous selection pressure aimed at cultivar purity and associated breeding practices. It is included that AFLP markers can be used for detecting polymorphism leading to genotype identification and for estimating genetic diversity.