Genetic diversity of westerwold ryegrass landraces collected in Northwest Spain

Sixteen landraces of westerwold ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam. var. westerwoldicum Wittm.) collected in Northwest Spain were evaluated at three locations: Mabegondo (La Coruna), Puebla de Brollon (Lugo) and Salcedo (Pontevedra). Populations showed a high variability for morphologic, agronomic and isoenzimatic traits. Principal component analysis was carried out to identify clusters of morphologic and agronomic homogeneous behaviour. A hierarchical clustering method on the first five components was used to separate the different groups. A partition into four clusters was chosen (71% of variance explained). Each cluster was described by the means of the different traits and compared with the other clusters. Landraces were screened for allozyme diversity al nine loci. Population genetic statistics were higher than those previously reported for other outbreeding species (mean number of alleles = 3.59 and mean expected heterozygosity = 0.510). Genetic diversity was mainly explained by the within population component. The between population differentiation only accounted for 8% of the whole diversity. The use of these genetic resources is discussed.