Assessing heritability of agro-morphological characters and relationship between genetic diversity with geographical factors in Einkorn wild wheat populations collected from West and Northwest of Iran

In order to evaluate heritability of agro-morphological characters as well as study of relationship between genetic diversity with geographical factors in Einkorn wild wheat populations (41 accessions consisted of 33 accessions of T. boeoticum and 8 accessions of T. urartu species), an experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with three replications in research station of University of Tabriz, Iran during 2011-2012 growing seasons. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the accessions for all of studied characters except numbers of total tiller and fertile tiller. Mean comparison also revealed significant differences between the two species in terms of all characters except leaf width as well as weight of total spikes and harvest index. For both of the species, heritability and variation coefficients indicated high level of genetic variation for agro-morphological characters. According to correlation coefficients, a positive and significant relation was found among the studied characters. However, only correlation between latitude and spike length as well as altitude and number of total tillers were positive and significant. Clustering of the accessions on the basis of all characters and geographical factors produced two main groups, so that in both dendrograms grouping of accessions were greatly consistent with each other. Accessions with closer altitude and latitude were allocated to similar groups. On the whole, remarkable level of genetic diversity among Einkorn wheat, especially accessions collected from Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces was revealed, implying special attention to germplasm of the areas is required.