GENETIC SIMILARITY AMONG AEGILOPS KOTSCHYI BOISS. WITH TRITICUM AESTIVUM L. HYBRID LINES

The University of Life Sciences in Lublin carried out a programme of crossing Triticum aestivum L. with wild species of the genus Aegilops in order to increase genetic variability in wheat and to improve its quality and resistance to environmental stresses. In this study the ISSR method was used to estimate genetic similarity in F-4 and F-5 Ae. kotschyi Boiss. x T. aestivum L. cv. Rusalka hybrid lines (KR3, KR4, KR6, KR9) and BC1F2 (Ae. kotschyi Boiss. x T. aestivum L. cv. Rusalka) x T. aestivum L. cv. Begra hybrid lines (KRB) and to identify DNA of the wild species in the wheat background. PCR was performed using 16 ISSR primers. A total of 271 bands were obtained. The primers amplified between 7 (ISSR35) and 27 (ISSR16) DNA fragments. The average number of polymorphic products was 15.5 per primer - from 2 (ISSR1) to 27 (ISSR16). Fourteen primers amplified 30 products identifying Ae. kotschyi Boiss. chromatin in the wheat background. Polymorphism information content (PIC) values for individual primers ranged from 0.173 to 0.319, with a mean of 0.244. The presence of Ae. kotschyi Boiss. - ISSR markers was proved in the case of all the Ae. kotschyi Boiss. x T. aestivum L. hybrid lines. ISSR33(650) and ISSR23(690) markers were detected in the greatest number of hybrids (6 and 8). Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) analysis demonstrated that the hybrid lines and parental wheat cultivars had a similarity range from 0.73 to 1.00. Ae. kotschyi Boiss. showed 0.19-0.32 similarity to other forms. The hybrid lines were separated into two main clusters: one with two KRB hybrid lines and the Begra cultivar, and the second, more genetically diverse group, comprising the remaining hybrid lines and the Rusalka cultivar. Ae. kotschyi Boiss., was not directly linked to any of these groups. Principal Coordinate Analysis was in good agreement with the UPGMA.