Wheat landraces could be unique sources of favorable genes for agronomic traits like yield and insect, pest, and disease resistances, as well as quality characteristics that are important for breeding programs. | Turk J Biol 36 (2012) 589-597 © TÜBİTAK doi: Genetic characterization of Turkish bread wheat landraces based on microsatellite markers and morphological characters Özlem ATEŞ SÖNMEZOĞLU1, Betül BOZMAZ2, Ahmet YILDIRIM1, Nejdet KANDEMİR2, Nevzat AYDIN3 1 Department of Biology, Kamil Özdağ Faculty of Science, Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, 70100 Karaman - TURKEY 2 Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Gaziosmanpaşa University, 60100 Tokat - TURKEY 3 Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, 70100 Karaman - TURKEY Received: ● Accepted: Abstract: Wheat landraces could be unique sources of favorable genes for agronomic traits like yield and insect, pest, and disease resistances, as well as quality characteristics that are important for breeding programs. Molecular marker systems offer great opportunities to characterize wheat accessions, which in particular are not morphologically identifiable. In this study, 20 bread wheat landraces collected from different regions of Turkey were characterized by using microsatellite markers (SSRs) and morphological characters. Seventeen morphological characters were used. Fifteen SSR primers were prescreened and the 7 most polymorphic primers were employed in characterization. The most polymorphic SSR loci were Xgwm 95 and 295 with 11 alleles, followed by Xgwm 261 and 325 with 9 alleles. The total number of alleles was 63, with an average number of 9 alleles. The dendrogram showed that the bread wheat landraces can be divided into 2 major groups. Based on matrix values, the closest genotypes of landraces were TR 63445 and TR 63886 for molecular data, and TR 37179 and TR 46797 for morphological data. On the other hand, the most genetically different genotypes were TR 37179 and TR 3608 in the SSR analysis, and TR 14851 and TR 3608 in the morphological characterization. These results showed that SSR markers and morphological .
