Genetic diversity of the Novi Sad Wheat Core Collection revealed by microsatellites.

In recent years, considerable emphasis has been placed on the development of microsatellites to be used for a variety of objectives. Parental genetic diversity is a crucial requisition to derive desirable and superior progenies from crossing and selection. In order to determine desirable genotypes for hybridization, 710 wheat genotypes from the Novi Sad Core Collection, originating from 38 countries, have been evaluated during the 1993-2000 period. During those seven growth seasons, 54 agronomical, morphological, physiological and other traits have been evaluated in field and controlled conditions. In each year, the field experiment comprised 3-7 replications, while for each field replication the plot size was 1.2 m(2). Based on the results from this evaluation, 96 genotypes with the highest phenotypic variation for 26 of the very important traits for wheat breeding programmes in Yugoslavia and the UK, were identified for screening with microsatellites. A set of 36 microsatellite markers was used, covering all three wheat genomes and all 42 chromosomes. For the 36 microsatellites, a total of 46 loci and 366 alleles were detected, with the average number of 7.96 alleles per locus. For 35 loci, null alleles were detected. The association of microsatellite data with phenotypic data, for 6 important traits for wheat breeding (stem height, earliness, resistance to leaf rust and powdery mildew, sedimentation value and protein content), as well as the potential for their implementation in marker assisted selection (MAS) in wheat breeding programmes for both Yugoslavia and UK are discussed.