Restriction fragment length polymorphisms in landrace barleys from Ethiopia in relation to geographic, altitude, and agro-ecological factors

Forty-three landrace (LR) barley (Hordeum vulgare) populations from a wide agro-ecological range in Ethiopia were assayed for RFLPs with 31 probes distributed over all barley chromosomes. Diversity between LRs was analyzed by Nei's genetic similarity (F) and genetic distance (d) parameters, The 43 populations were represented either by one single line (Set 1) or by four to five lines in a subset of 14 populations (Set 2), The greatest diversity between LRs was observed in Set 1. However, many populations appeared rather similar in RFLP patterns, Relationships between LRs were sharply altered by including the within LR-diversity component (Set 2), and the average level of between LR differentiation was reduced compared with Set 1. The within-LR diversity was similar in magnitude to that for geographical regions, Levels of within-LR RFLP diversity were poorly correlated with morphological and isozyme variations in the same LR or region. The results highlight the critical role of a sampling strategy that includes both within and between LR components, which is important both to large scale and core collections.