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Assessment of Genetic Variability among Tunisian Populations of Hordeum marinum Using Morpho‐Agronomic Traits
Author(s) -
Saoudi Warda,
Badri Mounawer,
Gandour Mhemmed,
Smaoui Abderrazak,
Abdelly Chedly,
Taamalli Wael
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2016.03.0205
Subject(s) - biology , population , rangeland , agronomy , genetic variation , heritability , botany , veterinary medicine , demography , genetics , medicine , sociology , gene
Sea barely ( Hordeum marinum Huds.) is known as a salinity‐tolerant annual grass species. Its use in the rehabilitation of degraded arid and semiarid rangelands or in crop plant improvement programs is of great interest. In this study, we investigated the phenotypic variation within and among 150 single‐seed descent families representing 10 Tunisian populations of H. marinum using eight quantitative traits. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions. For each population, seeds from 15 mother plants were evaluated with five replicates per mother plant. Our results showed significant variation within and between populations for most measured traits. Most phenotypic variation was found to occur within populations. The Q ST measurement of differentiation between populations varied according to traits from 0.03 for number of tillers to 0.309 for the weight of aerial part, with an average of 0.149. Pairwise Q ST grouped studied populations into three major clusters; the first group included Tabarka and Sidi Othman populations showing the lowest values for spike number and weight. The second group included Lessouda, Bouficha, and Mouthul having the highest values for the number and weight of spikes, while the third group included populations Lac de Bizerte, Sebkhet Ferjouna, Bkalta, Medjez El Bab, and Soliman and had moderate spike number and weight. Furthermore, there was no significant association between population differentiation and ecogeographical parameters.