Evaluation of Genetic Diversity Among Bulgarian Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties During the Period 1925–2003 Using Microsatellites

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were used to study the genetic diversity within old and modern Bulgarian winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties released in 20th century. A set of 91 varieties were screened by 19 wheat microsatellite markers (WMS), covering 17 wheat chromosomes, and one secalin-specific marker for rye chromosome arm 1RS. A total of 136 allelic variants were detected at 22 loci, ranging from 2 to 11, with an average of 6.8 alleles per marker. For 7 markers, null alleles were detected. The occurrence of rare alleles (frequency <2%) was observed for 13 markers. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values of the markers ranged from 0.10 (WMS0165 on 4AS) to 0.81 (WMS0437 on 7DL) with an average of 0.51. Approximately 74% of the varieties, mostly non-commercial, showed heterogeneity, with an average level of 10.1%. For the majority of markers, the relative frequencies of alleles varied considerably among different groups of varieties, revealing the effects of different selection between breeding centres. Some alleles, present in old genotypes, were lost, and new alleles have been introduced into modern varieties. Genetic diversity values over different periods of release were high, starting at 0.64 for varieties developed before 1960 to reach 0.71 in 1990s, revealing no declining trends in the diversity due to breeding activity. The cluster analysis discriminated all varieties (except for two) and revealed distinct groups of old and modern varieties, released from the main breeding centres in Northern, Southern and Western Bulgaria.