RFLP BASED GENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS OF EINKORN WHEATS

To study the relationships between different species of the Einkorn group, 55 different accessions of Triticum monococcum, T. boeoticum, I urartu, I sinskajae, I: thaoudar and I aegilopoides were analyzed. Fifteen anonymous probes and four clones corresponding to storage protein genes were used for detecting restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). The DNA was restricted with the restriction enzymes AluI, HaeIII, RsaI and TaqI. The 25 probe/enzyme combinations employed yielded a total of 488 polymorphic fragments. Statistical analyses were performed using Jaccard's coefficient of similarity and principal coordinate analysis. Different values of similarity within the three main taxa, monococcum, boeoticum and urartu, were obtained; the grouping at the species level was quite well reflected by the RFLP analysis done here. The coincidence between RFLP data and the subspecies classification of the T. monococcum group was only partial. One T. urartu accession is clearly different from all of the other 54 accessions. The need for an RFLP based revision of the Einkorn taxonomy is evident.