Population structure and genetic diversity of wheat landraces from northwestern Indian Himalaya

The present study was aimed at analyzing the genetic diversity of ninety six selected landraces from Northwestern Himalayan region using 21 microsatellite markers. The PIC value of STMS loci ranged from 0.011 (Xgwm383) to 0.746 (Xgwm369) with mean value of 0.34 for all loci. Total 51 alleles were detected with an average of 2.428 alleles per loci. Clustering of wheat landraces using three different algorithms gave the same kind of results. Lower inbreeding coeffi cient (F_ST) indicated low level of sub-population differentiation. Greater heterozygosity and gene flow among individuals were observed among wheat landraces. The partitioning of total molecular variance also showed similar, maximum variation was contributed by among individuals within populations (83.1%) followed by within individuals (15.12%) and the variation at among populations level was negligible (1.78%). It is concluded that observed number of alleles, effective number of alleles and Shannon's information index were greater in landraces of Kumaon division in comparison to other Himalayan region.