Evaluation of genetic diversity in Aegilops tauschii accessions using morphological and AFLP markers

Thirty two accessions of Aegilops tauschii were used to assess its genetic diversity by morphological and AFLP data and to evaluate relationship between morphological and AFLP markers. Thirty AFLP primer combinations led to the amplification of fragments ranging from 50 to 500 bp of which, 97 were polymorphic across the 32 accessions. Although both AFLP and morphological data classified accessions in two groups, one possessing subsp. tauschii accessions and the other contained all accessions of subsp. strangulata with some accessions from the subsp. tauschii. This may be explained by intermediate and hybrid forms between these two subspecies. Comparison of UPGMA dendrograms of morphological and AFLP markers using the cophenetic correlation indicated a non significant correlation (r = 0.37). Nevertheless, AFLP and selected morphological characters appear as useful and complementary techniques for evaluation of genetic diversity in subspecies of A. tauschii.