title: Characterizing Croatian Wheat Germplasm Diversity and Structure in a European Context by DArT Markers.
abstract: Narrowing the genetic base available for future genetic progress is a major concern to plant breeders. In order to avoid this, strategies to characterize and protect genetic diversity in regional breeding pools are required. In this study, 89 winter wheat cultivars released in Croatia between 1936 and 2006 were genotyped using 1,229 DArT (diversity array technology) markers to assess the diversity and population structure. In order to place Croatian breeding pool (CBP) in a European context, Croatian wheat cultivars were compared to 523 European cultivars from seven countries using a total of 166 common DArT markers. The results show higher genetic diversity in the wheat breeding pool from Central Europe (CE) as compared to that from Northern and Western European (NWE) countries. The most of the genetic diversity was attributable to the differences among cultivars within countries. When the geographical criterion (CE vs. NWE) was applied, highly significant difference between regions was obtained that accounted for 16.19% of the total variance, revealing that the CBP represents genetic variation not currently captured in elite European wheat. The current study emphasizes the important contribution made by plant breeders to maintaining wheat genetic diversity and suggests that regional breeding is essential to the maintenance of this diversity. The usefulness of open-access wheat datasets is also highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Department for Breeding & Genetics of Small Cereal Crops, Agricultural Institute OsijekOsijek, Croatia; Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant BreedingZagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Novoselović
authors.affiliation: The John Bingham Laboratory, National Institute of Agricultural Botany Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Alison R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: Department for Breeding & Genetics of Small Cereal Crops, Agricultural Institute Osijek Osijek, Croatia.
authors.forename: Ruđer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Šimek
authors.affiliation: Department for Breeding & Genetics of Small Cereal Crops, Agricultural Institute Osijek Osijek, Croatia.
authors.forename: Krešimir
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dvojković
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Sorrells
authors.affiliation: Bayer Crop Science NV Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gosman
authors.affiliation: The John Bingham Laboratory, National Institute of Agricultural Botany Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Horsnell
authors.affiliation: Department for Breeding & Genetics of Small Cereal Crops, Agricultural Institute Osijek Osijek, Croatia.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Drezner
authors.affiliation: Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant BreedingZagreb, Croatia; Faculty of Agriculture, University of ZagrebZagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Zlatko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Šatović
keywords: AMOVA; DArTs; TriticeaeGenome; genetic diversity; population structure; wheat