Study of the agro-morphological and technological genetic variability of the Mediterranean populations of durum wheat

Abstract

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. Durum) is the third mostly grown crop in the world and second in Morocco. This work aims to study the influence the genetic and the environmental effect on the adaptation, the yield and its components and on the grain quality of two durum wheat populations (76 durum accessions and 120 Recombinant Inbred Lines (RILs)). Two trials were installed in two INRA experimental stations, namely Sidi El Aidi (Settat) and Merchouch (Rabat). Several measurements on growth and phenological stages were carried out and analyzed and quality traits were measured in laboratory after harvest. The Principal Components Analysis (ACP) was performed to relate phenological traits and grain quality traits among RILs and accessions. Analysis of certain aspects of quality (Dodecyl Sodium Sulphates (SDS), Vitreousness Rate (TV), Yellow Index (IJ) and Ash content (TC) also allowed to detect an important and similar variability for the two populations. The electrophoresis analysis showed that 58% from the accessions and 62% of RILs present a good gluten force. Moreover, there were correlations between these characters on the one hand, and these characters and the agromorphologic characters on the other hand. A great multi-axis variability was observed which can serve as a base for new variation. This variation is controlled by many useful genes which can be used in durum wheat programs to release new varieties adapted to Moroccan environment and presenting good quality genes for durum wheat.

Keywords

• Durum wheat
• accessions
• recombinant inbred lines
• genetic variability
• agro-morphologic traits