GENETIC DIVERSITY OF BREAD WHEAT LANDRACES COLLECTED BY SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS IN AFGHANISTAN

N.I. Vavilov considered the territory of Afghanistan where one of the initial farming centers was generated to be part of the Middle Asian center of crop origin and diversity. Hexaploid 42-chromosomal wheat with the genome constitution AABBDD was also attributed to that center. Scientific expeditions from different countries surveyed repeatedly the agricultural regions of Afghanistan to collect wild and cultivated plants. The collected material from those regions is preserved at various seed banks. The distribution of Afghani landraces of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry and Australian collections depending on elevation above sea level and climatic conditions (humidity/aridity) is discussed. Data about sources of valuable traits for breeding identified among the accessions of Afghani bread wheat are presented. A set of 116 genotypes was analyzed for 13 microsatellite loci to investigate the structure of wheat genetic diversity