Genetic Diversity of Northern Wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus ssp. lanceolatus) as Revealed by Genotyping-by-Sequencing

Recent advances in next generation sequencing technologies make genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) more feasible for the molecular characterization of plant germplasm with complex and unsequenced genomes. This study represents the first preliminary effort using GBS to discover genome-wide genetic variants of northern wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus ssp. lanceolatus (Scribn. and J. G. Sm.) Gould) plants and to assess the genetic diversity present in four cultivated and six wild accessions. The effort generated the first novel set of genomic resources and 5659 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for this tetraploid grass. The diversity analysis revealed 8.8% of SNP variation residing among the 10 accessions and 1.9% SNP variation present between cultivated and wild accessions. The Bayesian analysis identified three major clusters of the assayed samples, and the principal coordinates analysis revealed the genetic distinctness of the two accessions collected from Nevada and Wyoming. The flow cytometry analysis confirmed the tetraploid nature of some of the assayed samples and estimated the average genome size to be 9.3–9.4 Gb for this species. These findings are useful for the genetic improvement of this native grass species for forage production and rangeland reclamation. The findings are also encouraging for the broad application of genotyping-by-sequencing in the characterization of genome-wide genetic variability in non-model polyploid plants