مریم گل آبادی

To study genetic diversity for yield and yield-related traits in eggplant, 86 local and commercial eggplant cultivars, grown by farmers in Iran, were evaluated for eight yield-related traits using randomized complete block design with three replications under greenhouse conditions in winter 2020. Analysis of variance of data showed that genotypes had significant differences for all measured traits. Fruit yield plant-1, fruit number plant-1 and fruit weight of genotypes varied from 60.3 to 5151 grams, 1.23 to 39 and 14.3 to 387.9 grams, respectively. Mean comparison revealed that the cv. Sable had the highest fruit yield plant-1 followed by genotypes no. 4, 2 and 5, respectively. Genotypes no. 76, 72, 70, 74 and 66 had the lowest fruit yield plant-1, respectively. Principal components analysis showed that three independent components explained 63% of the total variation. Cluster analysis using Ward method clustered studied eggplant genotypes in four different groups. These results were consistent with fruit yield performance of eggplant genotypes. Stepwise regression showed that three traits of fruit number plant-1, fruit weight and fruit width had the greatest effect on fruit yield plant-1. Path analysis showed that fruit weight and fruit number plant-1 traits had direct effect on fruit yield plant-1. The results of this research can be used to develop breeding populations for selection pure lines in eggplant breeding programs. 

According to FAO, gherkin and cucumber have been cultivated in about 2.23 million hectares of farmlands around the globe, and about 78000 hectares of Iran agricultural fields have been devoted to gherkin and cucumber cultivation. However, large amounts of the cucumber seeds required in Iran have been imported from abroad. Fortunately, some Iranian agricultural companies have been focused on seed production recently. Therefore, there is an opportunity to develop seed production equipment such as seed extracting machines.There are two types of cucumber seed extractors: bulk seed extractor and single fruit extractor. The bulk seed extractor is suitable for extraction of large amounts of seed on the farm, while the single fruit extractor is suitable where seed production is limited to greenhouse seed-producing facilities which are mostly used for controlled pollination of the crop.Due to the high price of imported seed extractors, especially after increasing the price of foreign currencies, production of these machines within the country is economically rational; therefore, the aim of this research is to develop and evaluate a single fruit cucumber seed extractor for small and medium-size seed-producing greenhouses.

The cucumber seed extractor was designed semi-automatically. The criteria for designing the machine were as follows: 1- usage of the single fruit seed extraction method, 2- the possibility of simultaneous usage of two operators, 3- automatic discharge of the extracted seeds, 4- the possibility of the height variation of the machine, 5- the possibility of the emergency shutdown of the machine, 6- the possibility of the angular velocity variation of the machine helix.The working element of the machine was the rotating helix that can extract the fruit seeds and leave the fruit's outer skin mostly intact for easy disposal of fruit remains from the greenhouse. A 1 hp, 3 phase electric motor was used to drive the machine via the belt and pulley transmission system. For the smooth start and stop of the machine, and the possibility of angular velocity variation of the machine helixes, an electronic driver was used for the motor.To design the machine helix, the dimensions of the examined cucumber were measured first (i.e., cucumber length and diameter); then, according to the physical and mechanical properties of the fruit, the prime mover and transmission system of the machine was designed. Finally, the fabricated machine was evaluated using some mechanization criteria.

Some of the results are as follows:The total torque required to drive the machine was 3.394Nm.The electric motor power should be higher than 0.284hp; furthermore, in order to have a wider angular velocity span for the rotating shaft, a 1hp electric motor was installed on the machine.The diameter of the rotating shaft was calculated to be 15mm.The seed extracting machine could be used instead of 15 workers of the manual seed extraction method.The rate of seed extraction using the machine was 30781 kg ha-1.The efficiency of seed extraction using the machine was similar to that of the manual method.The emergence percentage of seeds obtained by the machine was similar to that of the manual method.The amount of crop calculated from the concept of economical break-even point was 7 tons.

In this study, an apparatus for mechanized extraction of cucumber seed was designed, fabricated and evaluated. The working element of the machine is the extractor helix that is rotated via the belt and pulley transmission system, which is activated using a 1 hp, 3 phase electric motor. For smooth start and stop of the motor, as well as the possibility of angular velocity variation of the machine helix, the motor was equipped with an electronic driver. Utilizing an emergency shutdown switch, the machine can be protected from unforeseen emergency situations. After using the machine for 6 months, it was recognized that strengthening the extractor helixes was necessary. According to the results of this study, using the machine led to 15 person reduction in the labor needs of the manual cucumber seed extraction method. Moreover, the amount of crop calculated from the economical break-even point was 7.7 tons.

The importance of wild relatives in wheat breeding has caused a lot of investigations to study the genetic diversity and population structures in different species of wild wheat, using various molecular markers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the molecular diversity of 90 different accessions of Aegilops tauschiiand analyzing the genetic structure for clustering the populations using CAAT box-derived polymorphism (CBDP) markers.

In the present study, the genetic diversity and population structure of 90 different accessions of Ae. tauschii collected from different geographical areas of Iran, was evaluated using 12 CBDP primers.

Based on the results, the 12 primers amplified 141 bands in which 91 were polymorphic with an average of 7.58 bands pre primer. The polymorphism information content (PIC) and marker index (MI) for the CBDP primers ranged from 0.40 to 0.49 and 1.49 to 4.99, respectively. Primers CB9, CB12 and CB1 showed a high efficiency in genetic discrimination of evaluated accessions. Population structure analysis classified evaluated accessions into three main groups with 10, 18 and 30 accessions respectively and other accessions recognized as a mixture accessions. In this study, subpopulation NO.1 had the highest values of genetic diversity indices such as number of effective alleles (Ne), Shannon index (I) and heterozygosity (He). Among Ae. tauschii populations a very low genetic differentiation (Gst: 0.03) and high gene flow (Nm: 18.58) were observed. The dendrogram resulted from cluster analysis categorized the assessed accessions into three clusters which accordance with genetic structural analysis results.

Overall, the results of different parameters showed that the CBDP, is an appropriate marker system for assessing the genetic diversity of Aegilops tauschii accessions. Regarding to the results of genetic structural analysis and diversity parameters, a conservation program is recommended for management of Aegilops germplasm as a valuable genetic resource in the wheat breeding programs.

Marinating meat in solutions containing organic acids and plant extracts reduces the microbial load and increases its shelf life. In the present study, the effect of marinating camel meat with an aqueous extract of ginger and citric acid was investigated on the growth rate of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli bacteria and changes in pH and total volatile nitrogen (TVN). For this purpose, camel thigh meat samples were divided into 8 groups, including the control group (marinated in distilled water) and groups marinated with citric acid (0.5, 1.5, and 1.5%) and groups marinated with a combination of aqueous extract of 30% ginger and citric acid (0.5, 1.5 and 1.5%). The samples were stored at 4 °C and after 24 and 48 hours, microbiological and chemical tests were performed. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the control and other groups (P˂ 0.05). The Control group showed the highest microbial growth in both time intervals. The lowest pH was observed in 1.5% citric acid marinade, while the highest pH was related to the control group and ginger extract solution. The Control group showed the highest TVN after 48 h (P˂ 0.05). Based on the results, it can be concluded that changes in the concentration of citric acid and ginger extract affected the growth of S. aureus and E. coli inoculated on camel meat and increased its shelf life in refrigerated temperatures.

In order to evaluate of agronomical traits and fruit yield in 23 breeding hybrid cultivars of greenhouse cucumber, and determine the relationship between these traits, a randomized complete block design with three replications was performed in the research greenhouse of Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch in 2014-15. Data was collected for these traits: total fruit yield, total fruit number, number and fruit yield on three periods, plant height, length and width of leaf, length and diameter of fruit, days to flowering and fruiting and the first flower node. Coefficient of correlations showed that total number of fruit and fruit diameter had significant and positive correlation with fruit yield. Path analysis revealed that fruit number had the highest direct and positive effect on fruit yield. Therefore this trait could be used as selection criterion for selecting genotypes with high fruit yield. Step wise regression showed that total fruit yield and fruit yield on mid fruit production period explained 96.30 percentage of fruit yield variation. On the other hand, total fruit yield and fruit number on final fruit production period explained the highest amount of total fruit number variation.

In this study, 16 ecotypes of different species of Thymus were evaluated for morphological and flower related traits (plant height, canopy diameter, leaf length and width, plant dry weight, 1000 grain weight, number of day to flowering, flower length, flag and pistil length, number of flag and pollen viability) in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at the Research Center of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Isfahan. Analysis of variance showed significant difference between studied species for these traits. Mean comparison showed that the highest amount of dry weight was  belonged to  Thymus kotschyanus species from west Azerbaijan. Therefore, this genotype can be offered, if the purpose of breeding program is increasing of plant dry weight. Study of correlation between traits showed that dry weight had a significant negative relationship with 1000 grain weight and pollen viability percentage. Stepwise regression analysis showed that flower length, number of flags, large canopy diameter, percentage of pollen viability, flag length and 1000 grain weight justified variation of plant dry weight, and therefore these traits are the most important component of plant yield. Cluster analysis on the studied species could divide them into 4 distinct groups. The results showed that these groups did not follow geographical distribution.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of hormonal compositions and concentrations, temperature and light pre-treatments in changing the biological pathways and moving toward callugenesis, embryogenesis and regeneration in cucumber anther explants. Two seperate factorial experiments were conducted in completely randomized design with three replications on open pollination Isfahan native cucumber and greenhouse inbred line. Factors consisted of tempreture (4°C cold and without cold pretreatment (fresh flower)), Light treatment (brightness and darkness) and different hormone compositions and concentrations including KIN (1 to 2.5 mg/L), BAP (0.1 to 3.5 mg/L) and 2.4-D (1 to 3.5 mg/L) at five levels. The results showed the superiority of the fresh flower in cold pre-treatment for embrygenesis and callugenesis in inbred line, and for callugenesis in native cultivar. Darkness treatment caused a significant increasing in callugenesis and callus diameter of inbred line, however did not significant effects on native cultivar. The combination of BAP and 2,4-D hormones at a rate of 3.5+1mg/L (in both genotypes) caused the highest induction of embryogenesis and callugenesis. Embryogenesis was affected by studied factors in inbred line, however these factors did not have significant effects on embryogenesis in native cucumber. Triple interaction of temperature, light and hormonal compositions in culture media showed that in order to obtain the highest embryogenesis, callus induction and callus diameter, use of fresh flowers and 2,4-D+BAP hormones (3.5+1 mg/L) are suitable in anther culture of cucumber. The conditions of lightness and darkness did not play important role in embryogenesis.

The use of herbal essential oils can inhibit bacterial growth and proliferation. In this investigation, the chemical composition and antimicrobial effects of essential oils of Oliveria decumbens on culture media and hamburger have been studied. GC/MS analysis identified 12 components in the essential oils of Oliveria decumbens. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was investigated against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli using disc diffusion and well plate method. The experiment was a factorial form of a completely randomized design with 3 levels in essential oil concentration (0, 0.32, and 1.25 µl/g) in 4 periods (1, 20, 40, and 60 days) with 3 replications on S. aureus, E. coli, mold, yeast and total count in hamburger. The most important identified compounds in the essential oils of Oliveria decumbens were phenolic and aldehyde compounds. Minimum inhibition concentrations of Oliveria decumbens essential oils against S. aureus and E. coli were 0.32 µl/ml and 0.625 µl/ml, respectively. Besides, the number of microorganisms decreased with increasing concentrations of essential oils of Oliveria decumbens. There was no significant difference between the control and concentrations of 0.32 µl/g in E. coli count but in all types of microorganisms, the highest decrease was observed in the concentration of 1.25 µl/g (p < /em><0.05). The high amount of aldehydes and phenols in Oliveria decumbens essential oils may be a reason for antimicrobial effects of the plant essential oils that can be considered as a natural source of preservative in food.

This experiment was conducted to investigate heritability, combining ability and genetic control of important traits of greenhouse cucumber inbred lines in 2015-2016. The genetic materials used in this experiment were 52 hybrids from 10 male and 27 female cucumber inberd lines which were examined in two separate experiments. These experiments were carried out as North Carolina Design I using randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed that male parents 1, 2 and 13 had the highest values of vegetative traits in both experiments. Estimation of genetic parameters for vegetative traits also indicated low levels of additive variance and narrow-sense heritability. The highest total number of fruits in the first experiment was observed in male parent number 7. Regarding fruit yield related traits, male lines number 7 and 15 in the first experiment had higher fruit yield. The results of second experiment showed that the longer fruit production duration and higher number of fruit per node belonged to male parents 10 and 3, respectively. There was no significant differences for other fruit related traits. Estimation of genetic parameters showed that in many of traits associated with fruit such as fruit diameter, fruit firmness, fruit number and yield, the additive variance and narrow-sense heritability were high, therefore, it is possible to select successfully for these traits. In general, male inbred lines number 7, 13, 15, and 24 contributed to increasing of fruit-related traits and fruit yield in progenies.

In order to evaluate yield, yield-related traits and fruit quality in 83 tomato lines, this experiment was conducted using Completely Randomized Block Design with three replications. Results of analysis of variance indicated highly significant genotypic differences for all studied traits. Fruit yield showed a positive and highly significant correlation with average of fruit number and weight, fruit length and diameter, pericarp thickness and titrable acidity (TA), and negative significant correlation with days to 50% maturing and ripening index (TSS/TA) traits. Cluster analysis classified all lines in five groups and there was highly significant difference among the clusters for all traits except TSS. Based on mean comparison between cluster analysis groups, the lines in cluster 5 including, 282, 276, 244, 213, 247 and 412 were early maturing and had a high value of yield related traits. Among the cluster 5 lines, some of them had a high titratable acidity and length to diameter ratio, and a lower TSS/TA than other line. These lines could introduce as suitable lines for fresh consumption and also for processing as a result of their long shelf life and could be used for production of suitable hybrids.

This study was done to investigate and compare fruit yield, yield components, morphological traits and fruit quality of greenhouse tomato genotypes in order to use them as selection criteria. Progenies of 49 crosses of greenhouse tomato together with their 13 parents were evaluated using Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The highest amount of fruit yield was observed in the progenies of the crosses 20, 25 and 46. On the other hand, the progenies of the crosses 17 and 18, which showed the highest amount of fruit quality, also had a suitable fruit yield. The highest number of fruits was observed in the progenies of the crosses 18, 16 and 19. In order to selecte the most effective traits as the selection criteria, broad and narrow sense heritabilities were estimated under two growing seasons by uniparental-perogeny, biparental-perogeny regression, and parental-perogeny correlation. The amount of broad sense heritability ranged from 45 to 92% in the first season and from 43 to 80% in the second one. Therefore, the traits including the total fruit yield, fruit weight, pericarp thickness, Brix, and PH were suggested for selecting the best genotypes, because of the higher level of heritability in these traits. Higher amounts of narrow-sense heritability in number of fruit per cluster and internode length suggested that these traits are appropriate as selection criteria. But the results showed that selection criteria varied in different environmental conditions.

Biscuit is one of the most consumed confectionary products from cereal due to the long shelf life and special textural properties. Despite the extensive researches which demonstrate the role of high molecular weight glutenin subunits elements on the quality of flour, So far, there are no studies identifying the impact of this subunit on the qualitative attributes of confectionary products. In the present research, the effect of glutenin subunits with high molecular weight in 10 wheat cultivars on the quality characteristics of biscuit has been studied.
In present research, 10 genotypes of wheat were obtained from Agriculture Research Center and Natural Resources of Isfahan and high molecular weight glutenin subunits were separated and fractioned using SDS – PAGE. Profitable flour was prepared and used for biscuit production. Several qualitative parameters such as brittleness, dimensions and density of products were evaluated and their relations to high molecular weight glutenin were investigated.
Glu-B1 has the highest effect on qualitative characteristics of biscuit in high molecular weight loci. The presence of 1, 5, 2 subunits have negative effect on surface biscuit area. In addition, the presence of 17 and 14 allele have significant positive and negative impacts on biscuit stiffness respectively. 18 allelic gene has an important effect on maximum resistance and 8 and 16 were also effective on thickness of product. In the Glu-A1, the influence of allele 1 on density and allele 2* on thickness and in the Glu-D1, the impact of 10 5 allele on density of product were important.
HMW-GS subunits affect the textural quality of biscuit. Therefore, studying these effects and also having the knowledge of profitable wheat varieties and molecular weight glutenin subunits of parents and selecting parents with desired subunits for wheat breading can be advantageous for improving and controlling the qualitative properties of products and help in producing products with desired qualities.

Drought stress as the most important abiotic stress has an important role in reducing crop production in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. The physiological traits related to drought stress are of utmost importance in this regard. In order to evaluate the effect of drought stress on physiological indices of bread wheat flag leaf، a split plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications at the Faculty of Agriculture، Azad University of Khorasgan during 2008-2009 growing season. The three different irrigation conditions including normal irrigation، irrigation cease from 50% of head emergence to harvesting as well as irrigation cease from 50% of head emergence to harvesting with 30% increase in N fertilizer were assigned as the main plots and 7 genotypes of bread wheat were consisted as sub plots. The results of ANOVA showed that the physiological traits of relative water content، leaf water content، moisture retention capacity، cut leaves water retention، water loss ratio، as well as seed yield trait had significant differences under different environmental conditions. The amount of physiological traits under drought stress with extra N fertilizer was significantly greater than under drought stress without extra N fertilizer. In fact، extra N fertilizer increased plant tolerance to drought stress conditions through increasing the vegetative growth and leaf water content. Results showed that Pishtaz and Sepahan cultivars as well as line 11 which possessed the greatest grain yield، had the highest physiological traits and the lowest amount of water loss in different environments

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method using Cobalt (Co) catalyst supported by Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) layer. Specified mixture of Argon carrier gas and ethanol vapor was used for growth process. The effect of entrance flow rate of hydrocarbon gas (ethanol), on the length and density of carbon nanotubes was studied. In our experiments at constant pressure of 10 mmHg, by increasing the rate of ethanol vapor, the density and also the length of nanotubes increases up to approximate rate of 2 ml/min, and then decreases for higher rates of ethanol. Also, it was found that the diameter, length and density of carbon nanotubes were controllable by varying the catalyst layer thickness. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was utilized to provide information of the length, density and diameter of CNTs under various conditions, and Raman spectroscopy was used to measure impurities in carbon nanotubes

The purpose of this study was to describe the correlations between wheat grain yield (GY) and its components, under environmental stress and non-stress conditions, and recognition of the most effective yield components and their development stages in making interaction with the environment. Two generations of F3 and F4, produced from a cross between Oste-Gata (drought tolerant) and Massara-1 (susceptible) genotypes, were used for evaluation in two years (2005 and 2006) at Research Farm of Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran. Analysis of correlation of yield and yield components showed that grain yield was significantly correlated with grain weight per spike, number of grains per spike and number of spikes per m2. Results of Tai analysis revealed that under stress, grain weight per spike and under non-stress condition, number of spikes per m2 had the highest direct effect on GY in both generations. Assay of genotypic components showed that under stress conditions, grain weight per spike and number of grains per spike, and under non-stress conditions, number of spikes per m2 had the highest effect on genotype × environment interaction and their developmental stages (grain filling, reproductive and pollination). In non-stress condition, spike number per m2 had the same effect. Analysis of environmental components indicated that the most environmental sensitive period of plant growth was grain filling stage. Large difference between early and late growth stages is related to high sensitivity of grain filling period and reproductive stage to environmental conditions and the occurrence of drought stress at reproductive stage. Therefore, trend of grain yield variations under stress conditions was affected by grain weight per spike and showed the highest amount of environmental interaction at its growth stage.

In this experiment, markers linked to the gene(s) controlling days to heading, days to anthesis and days to maturity were identified in a segregating population of 151 F3 and F4 families derived from the cross between Oste-Gata as drought tolerance and Massara-1 as susceptible durum wheat genotypes. The traits were assessed in field trails in two environmental conditions in 2003 and 2004 cropping cycles. From 200 markers screened in this study, 30 markers which were polymorphic distributed on different wheat chromosomes, except 2A, 4A and 6B.. Based on single marker analysis, Xgwm148-2B and Xwmc45-7A showed association with days to heading under two environmental conditions and explained 19% of the total phenotypic variation. For days to maturity, Xcfa2114-6A closely associated with other traits under stress and non-stress conditions. The presence of markers that were exactly located at the same regions of chromosomes reflected high correlation between traits. Composite interval mapping identified 3, 2 and 2 QTLs for days to heading, days to anthesis and days to maturity, respectively. These QTLs were located on chromosome 2B and 3B for days to heading and days to antheisis and 3B and 5A for days to maturity, respectively. These QTLs could explain about 10% of phenotypic variation of phenological traits.

This research was performed to investigate the role of extra nitrogen fertilizer in reduction of drought stress effects in bread wheat. For this propose, an experiment was conducted as split plot using randomized complete block design with three replications, during 2010-2011. The three different environmental conditions consisted of normal conditions, terminal drought stress condition with 30% increase in N fertilizer and terminal drought stress condition, were allocated in the main plots and 7 cultivars and lines of bread wheat were assigned in sub plots. The genotypes under investigation revealed significant differences on MP, GMP, TOL, STI and SSI under drought stress and drought stress with extra N fertilizer conditions. Based on the results of correlation between drought tolerance indices and grain yield, GMP and STI depicted positive correlation with grain yield under all environmental conditions. Therefore, GMP and STI indices were considered as the best for the selection of tolerant genotypes under different environmental conditions. The result of cluster analysis which was based on the reaction of the seed in different environmental conditions, and the indices could lead to separated genotypes to three groups under stress condition and stress condition with extra N fertilizer. Comparison of traits on genotypes in these groups revealed that Sepahan, Pishtaz and Line 9 had the highest amount of yield and indices under drought stress condition with extra N fertilizer, however only Pishtaz and line 9 showed the highest amount of different traits under drought stress conditions. There were low reduction in grain yield under stress condition with extra N fertilizer for Sepahan and Rowshan which is mainly related to effect of nitrogen on drought stress adjustment. Nitrogen treatment did not have noticeable effects on the other genotypes. By comparing the percentage of yield reduction under stress environment, it was proved that Sepahan and Rowshan had 9 and 6 percent yield reduction respectively under extra N fertilizer less than the drought stress. T-test indicated that there were significant differences between grain yield under normal and stress conditions for all genotypes, however, Sepahan and line 11 showed significant differences between drought stress and drought stress with extra N fertilizer conditions.

The influence of late-season drought stress on grain yield, its components and some other morpho-physiological traits was evaluated using 151 F3 families obtained from crossing a drought tolerant genotype with a drought susceptible genotype at Research Farm of Isfahan University of Technology in 2003-2004. Two separate randomized complete block designs each of which having two replications allocated to each of moisture stress and irrigated (non-stress) environments. Drought stress significantly affected grain yield, its components, harvest index and relative water content (RWC) traits. Analysis of variance of combined data revealed significant differences among the environments for the traits that related to reproductive stage. The genetic and phenotypic correlation coefficients between grain yield and most of traits such as RWC and excised leaf water retention (ELWR) were significant. Based on stepwise regression analysis, biological yield and harvest index were the most efficient traits in explaining the grain yield variation under normal and stress environments, respectively, Factor analysis of data from the two environments indicated that components were related to phenologic characters, potentional of plant production, harvest index and yield components, plant height and physiological traits. The amount of variation explained by these components varied for two environmental conditions where yield components, plant height and physiological traits had a high impact under stress environment. Cluster analysis of families based on all of traits for two environments defined desirable clusters. This cluster divided families into five groups each of which desirable for a particular trait such as high or low grain yield in stress environments, early maturity, late maturity, high RWC and high ELWR.

Drought stress is one of the most important environmental stresses that reduces grain yield dramatically. Grain yield results as a complex trait from contribution of many traits in plant, and evaluation of morphological traits with less complicated inheritance under different environmental conditions and related to grain yield could be used as selection criteria. To study the genetics of traits related to plant stature and flag leaf area, a cross was made between durum wheat cultivars Oste-Gata (drought tolerant) and Massara-1(susceptible). Their F1, F2 and F3 progenies were evaluated under normal and late-season drought stress using a randomized complete block design. Generation mean analysis was performed by scaling test which essays all generations simultaneously. Analysis of variance of generations showed that all traits except of width of flag leaf, differed significantly between generations. Three parametric models contain m, d and h had the best fit. Although both additive and dominance components were involved in the expression of all the traits under both environments, yet the dominance component suffered more than the additive component. Dominance variance was contributed in plant height, peduncle length and length of flag leaf more than additive variance. Therefore, these traits can not be used as selection criteria. There was no epistatic effect for the studied traits, indicating the lack of gene intractions for the traits in the segregating populations.

Genetic variation of 300 genotypes of durum wheat comprising CIMMYT/ICARDA and Iranian germplasm was evaluated in 1999-2000 at Researh Farm of College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology located at Lavark, NaJaf-Abad. Days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, spike length, grain weight per spike, number of grain per spike, number of spikes per m2, 1000-grain weight, test weight, grain yield, biological yield, and harvest index were recorded. Coefficients of correlation, step-wise regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis of characters and genotypes were conducted using the studied traits. Results indicated that considerable genetic variations exist for the traits and, in particular for grain yield, harvest index, number of spikes per unit area and number of grain per spike. Grain yield had a positive and significant correlation with days to heading, days to maturity, number of grain per spike and grain weight per spike. Factor analysis for the genotypes detected 6 factors, which explained 76.7 percent of the total variation among data. These factors basically involved potential of assimilate distribution, different aspects of plant storage, source-sink relationships, plant height and tillering potential. Cluster analysis was similar to factor analysis in grouping the characters. According to cluster analysis, the genotypes were calssified into 6 clusters with significant differences among all groups. Mean comparisons of traits in these groups showed that genotypes of groups 5 and 6 were superior in grain yield and harvest index and are beneficial to the local durum breeding objectives.

To study grain quality traits and their relationships with high molecular weight (HMW) and low moleculor weight (LMW) glutenin subunits, 104 durum wheat genotypes were used. Six grain quality characteristics comprising wet and dry gluten content, test weight, grain hardiness, protein content and SDS sedimentation volume were studied. HMW and LMW glutenin subunits were evaluated using SDS-polyacrylamid gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) in 33 genotypes. Statistical analysis including correlation coefficients, factor analysis, cluster analysis of genotypes based on qualitative traits, analysis of variance in qualitative traits based on HMW, LMW, and combination of subunits as well as all of subunits, and canonical correlation analysis between glutenin subunits and qualitative traits were used. Factor analysis of the genotypes detected 2 factors, which explained 65 percent of the total variation among the data. These were named quantitative protein and qualitative protein. Based on cluster analysis, the genotypes were classified into four clusters. The genotypes in groups 2 and 4 were beneficial in terms of protein quantity and quality. In evaluating glutenin subunits, 7 HMW subunits and 2 LMW subunits were detected. Subunit null of Glu-Al was observed. Subunits 7+8, 6+8, 13+16 and 20 at Glu-Bl were observed however, neither of them had significant differences in qualitative traits, but 6+8 and 7+8 had a higher SDS sedimentation rate than 20. LMW-1 and LMW-2 had significant differences in protein content and SDS sedimentation LMW-1 had higher protein content whereas LMW-2 had higher SDS sedimentation. Combibation of subunit LMW-1 / HMW 7+8 had the highest protein content and LMW-2/HMW 7+8 had the highest SDS sedimentation. Results of canonical correlation showed that presence of LMW-2 and HMW 7+8, and absence of LMW-1 and HMW 20 in durum wheats caused an increase in SDS sedimentation and a reduction in protein and gluten content.