Distribution, Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of <i>Aegilops tauschii</i> Coss. in Major Wheat-Growing Regions in China

• Main Authors: Haiyan Yu, Juan Yang, Hailan Cui, Adeel Abbas, Shouhui Wei, Xiangju Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Agriculture
• Subjects: <i>Aegilops tauschii</i> Coss.; frequency of occurrence; microsatellite marker; genetic diversity; population structure
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/4/311

<i>Aegilops tauschii</i> Coss. is known as a noxious grass weed seriously affecting wheat quality and yield. To investigate its present occurrence in wheat fields and the potential genetic diversity of the grass weed in China, a filed survey covering major wheat production regions was conducted during 2017–2019. Seeds of different <i>Ae. tauschii</i> populations collected from the survey were analyzed with Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) technique. Results showed that <i>Ae. tauschii</i> was occurring in each of the provinces surveyed with varied occurrence frequency ranging from 0.91% in Sichuan Province to 92.85% in Henan Provinces. Eighty alleles with size ranging from 98 bp to 277 bp were detected from the 192 collected<i> Ae. tauschii </i>populations with 17 SSR markers. <i>Ae. tauschii</i>, in this study, exhibited a moderately high level of genetic diversity, high differentiation, deficient heterozygosity and limited gene flow. Compared with other provinces, Hubei populations possessed relatively low genetic diversity. Dendrogram analysis showed that genetic distance did not seem to be related to geographic distribution. Additionally, STRUCTURE analysis suggested that <i>Ae. tauschii</i> populations in wheat fields of China can be divided into three groups, which was further supported by cluster analysis. Among the three groups, solely 7% of the total variation was detected, whereas the majority variation (67%) occurred among different populations within same group. Undoubtedly, such information will help us to better understand population relationships and spread of <i>Ae. tauschii</i> in China and will provide a new perspective for its integrated management.