GENETIC DIVERSITY IN WHEAT LANDRACES FROM PAKISTAN BASED ON POLYMORPHISM FOR HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT GLUTENIN SUBUNITS (HMW-GS)

A total of 77 wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) landraces collected from different areas of Pakistan were assessed for genetic diversity in terms of HMW-Glutenin sub-units. Considerable amount of variation was observed in this set of germplasm ranging from monomorphism to polymorphism as revealed by SDS-Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS~PAGE). Of the 8 alleles detected at Glu-1 loci, three belong to each Glu-A1 and Glu-B1 and 2 belong to Glu-D1 locus. The most frequent subunits were 1 and 2* at Glu-A1 locus, 7+8 at Glu-B1 locus and 2+12 at Glu-D1 locus. Maximum variation was observed in Diamir followed by Ghizer. A higher gene diversity between the populations (Dst = 0.29%) was observed as compared to the gene diversity within the populations (Hs =10%). High value for gene diversity between population relative to total gene diversity (Gst = 0.7376) indicated a substantial amount of gene differentiation among the populations. The information generated could be exploited by the plant breeders to develop new cultivars and by the gene bank managers to properly document and maintain the germplasm collections.