www.biodicon.com Biological Diversity and Conservation ISSN 1308-5301 Print; ISSN 1308-8084 Online BioDiCon 2/1 (2009) 27-35 Genetic diversity in barley genetic diversity in local Tunisian barley based on RAPD and SSR analysis Kadri KARIM *1 , Abdellawi RAWDA 2 , Cheikh-Mhamed HATEM 3 1 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie végétale, Centre regional de la Recherche en Agriculture Oasienne, Degach 2260, Tunisia 2 Département de biologie, faculté des sciences de Tunis, 2092 compus universitaire El Manar II, Tunisie 3 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie et physiologie végétale, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie, 2049 rue Hédi Karray Ariana, Tunisie Abstract The genetic variation and relationships among 12 local barleys and the varieties Martin and Manel were evaluated using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and simple sequence repeat (SSR). A high level of polymorphism was found with both RAPD and SSR markers and the mean polymorphism information content (PIC) values were 0.477 and 0.533 for RAPD and SSR markers, respectively. In RAPD analyses, 69 out of 93 bands (74%) were polymorphic. The number of alleles ranged from 4 to 10 per primer, with an average of 6.2 per primer. The RAPD-based genetic dissimilarity (RAPD-GD) ranged from 0.114 to 0.933, with the mean of 0.523. In SSR analyses, a total of 43 alleles were detected, among which 39 alleles (90.7%) were polymorphic. The number of alleles per primer ranged from 2 to 4 with an average of 2.87 alleles per SSR primer. The SSR-derived genetic dissimilarity (SSR-GD) ranged from 0.423 to 0.910, with the mean of 0.665. SSR was better than RAPD to detect genetic diversity among the barley accessions. A poor correlation (r = 0.193) was found between both sets of genetic similarity data, suggesting that both sets of markers revealed unrelated estimates of genetic relationships. Key words: Barley, RAPD, SSR, Genetic diversity Introduction Barley, Hordeum vulgare L., is one of the principal cereal crops in the world and is cultivated in all temperate areas (von Bothmer et al. 1995). Wild barleys, H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum and H. vulgare ssp agriocrithon, are the primary gene pool of cultivated barley (H. vulgare ssp. vulgare). The total number of barley accessions in the Genbanks, including redundant materials, is estimated to be about 280,000 (Plucknett et al. 1987). Barley is a major cereal crop in Tunisia and is of great importance as forage species. It had been the subject of intensive genome mapping and quantitative trait dissection efforts. Barley is raking fourth in the world after rice, wheat and maize (Forster et al., 2000). Local barley is of six rows ear and presenting a genome of 2n = 2x = 14. In Tunisia, since die begening of the cereal improvement program, we have registered only 15 varieties which make a narrow genetic diversity. In the opposite, we have more than 30 varieties of durum and bread wheat officially recorded (El Faleh, 1998). Genetic barley erosion could be avoided through the establishment of a local genotype ressources collection and conservation. Consequently, genetic diversity, identification and maintain of our local ressources should be achieved to be used in breeding programs. Molecular markers have been proved to be valuable tools in the characterization and evaluation of genetic diversity within and between species and populations. It has been shown that different markers might reveal different classes of variation (Powell et al. 1996; Russell et al. 1997). It is correlated with the genome fraction surveyed by each  Corresponding author / Haberlemeden sorumlu yazar: kadri.karim@iresa.agrinet.tn © 2009 All rights reserved / Tüm hakları saklıdır BioDiCon. 43-0209