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Genetic diversity in Pakistani populations of Avena fatua revealed by seed storage protein polymorphism
Bushra Mirza, Mohammad Shoaib, Munawar Ahmad, Yong-Bi Fu
Communications in Biometry and Crop Science (2007) 2 (1), 41-48.
ABSTRACT
Avena fatua L. is a common weed of wheat fields and causes huge losses of grain yield in Pakistan. A preliminary study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity of 199 A. fatua plants collected from 13 districts in Pakistan using seed storage protein polymorphism. A total number of 34 clearly distinguishable protein bands were detected. The number of bands detected for each population ranged from 24 to 34, and the percentage of the polymorphic bands ranged from 37.9 to 97% with an average of 73.4%. These variations were not associated with latitude, longitude, elevation, or sample size. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 33.1% of the total protein variation resided among the 13 populations, 6% between white and black seed types and 10.3% between plants collected from irrigated and rain fed fields. The most diverse (and distinct) population was from the Swabi district and the least diverse population from the Lakkimarwat district. More variation was observed for irrigation-associated plants than rain-associated plants. Similarly, more variation was detected in plants with white seeds than black seeds. These findings are useful for developing effective strategies to control A. fatua for sustainable agricultural production systems in Pakistan. A more comprehensive assessment is currently being performed with microsatellite markers to cover more A. fatua populations under various weed management practices.
Key Words: Avena fatua; genetic diversity; Pakistan; seed storage protein; weed, wild oat.
