This study was carried out to investigate genetic variation and similarity of 50 tall fescue genotypes. Plants were clonally propagated and evaluated during 2005 and 2006 for agronomic, phonological and morphological traits using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Results indicated that there were significant differences between genotypes for all of the measured traits indicating a broad genetic diversity in the germplasm. Genotypic coefficient of variability was highest for fresh and dry forage yield and lowest for days to pollination and plant height. The estimates of heritability for measured traits showed that days to pollination and crown diameter had the highest value and can be improved by selection. There was a negative correlation coefficient between dry forage yield and days to pollination and a significantly positive one between dry forage yield with other measured traits (except for flag leaf width) indicating that indirect selection through component of dry matter yield is possible. Applying cluster analysis on the studied attributes, genotypes were characterized in five groups. On this bases the least and the most similar genotypes may be used in the future breeding projects.

A comprehensive knowledge of the amount of genetic diversity in a breeding flock would allow better management and could improve the effectiveness of breeding program. The objectives of the present study were to estimate the level of genetic similarity in a breeding flock of Afshari sheep and to compare the performance of pedigree and DNA marker based methods for estimating pairwise genetic similarities. Genetic relationships among 95 animals were estimated using both microsatellite markers and pedigree based data. A total of 102 polymorphic bands were obtained with 18 microsatellite primer pairs. Pedigree-based estimates of parent-offspring relationships and genotypic banding pattern were used to construct relatedness (a) and molecular coancestry (fM) matrices, respectively. The pedigree-based similarity (mean=0.032, range=0.00–0.75) was lower than the similarity assessed using microsatellite markers (mean=0.36, range=0.10–0.83). Similarity estimates were used to construct dendrograms by using the Unweighted Pair-Group Method with Arithmetic Averages (UPGMA). The degree of relationship between the similarity matrices based on marker and pedigree data was measured by the normalized Mantel test. Even though there was a large difference between the means of the two similarity measures, a low positive correlation (r=0.22, p<0.01) was detected between the two similarity matrices. The observed low correlation between molecular vs., the pedigree based expected genetic similarities suggests that simple estimates of proportion of shared alleles using low density markers may not reflect the true proportions and it is preferable to use pedigree information whenever available.

Background: Masske is a traditional Iranian butter made from yoghurt. The first aim of this study was to isolate and identify the nonlactic pathogenic microflora by culture and molecular methods of identification, and the second purpose was to identify genetic similarity of the isolated bacteria in Masske.Materials and Methods: In order to detect pathogenic dominant indicator microorganisms, a number of 150 bacterial isolates from three Masske samples, which may comprise the repetitive isolates and could grow on appropriate media for Staphylococci and E.coli, were classified into 8 groups according to their phenotypic characterization followed by chemical tests. Then 2approximately similar isolates from each group were chosen (total 18 isolates; we selected 3 isolates from 2 groups of eight), and the sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was done for subsequent analysis.Results: Among 18 bacterial isolates, Staphylococcus hominis was the most frequently isolated species during the manufacture of Masske as the presence of this bacterium was confirmed in 14 out of 18 samples. Also, the presence of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli was identical across the samples (for each one, 2 out of 18).Conclusion: Our results based on cultural and molecular methods suggest making some improvements to the hygiene of Masske manufacture due to the high population of minor pathogens.

Radish belonging to the Brassicaceae family, contains some componds such as cineol, malvin Chloride, Sapogenin, Sulforaphane and Raphanin and has many therapeutic properties. In this study, IRAP retrotransposon marker was used for evaluation of genetic diversity in seven commercial and native populations of Radish herb. The least number of bands (1) were produced by LTR2 & LTR15 (primer combinations) and the highest number, (16) were produced by LTR23 primer. The mean number of bands in all sites was 6. 39. the most diversity index (0. 41) was found for Sukkula primer and the least diversity index (0. 18) was related to LTR2-LTR15 primer and also the mean diversity index was 0. 28. The highest marker index (4. 1) was related to the LTR3 primer and the least marker index (0. 18) was related to the LTR15 and LTR2 primer combination. The most number of effective bands, the Shanoon diversity index and the Nei diversity index were 1. 82, 0. 64 and 0. 45, respectively and all belonged to Sukkula primer. The least number of effective bands, the Shanoon diversity index and the Nei diversity index were 1. 18, 0. 27 and 0. 15, respectively belonged to the rtdk primer. Among radish populations, the most percentage of polymorphic location, effective band, the Shanoon diversity index and the Nei diversity index were 46. 85, 1. 305, 0. 17 and 0. 26, respectively. Molecular variance analysis among and between populations showed that 59% of the total genetic diversity was among populations. The results of this study showed that the population of Profit could be used as a parent or maternal parent or gene selection provider in Iran's radish breeding, since it showed the most polymorphism, the Shanoon diversity index and the Nei diversity index and number of effective bands.

Microsatellite markers were employed for germplasm analysis and an estimation of the genetic relationship and diversity among 21 genotypes Jranian bread wheat. Thirty-five microsatellite markers were used in the analysis. A total of 199 alleles were detected. The number of alleles per microsatellite marker varied from 2 to 10 with ad average of 5.37. The averages for polymorphism information content and genetic similarly were. 0.56 and 0.328 respectively. The highest level of genetic similarity (0.755) was found between Ghods and Alvand genotypes while the lowest (0.188) between Bolani and Niknejhad. The results indicated that the genotypes could be distinguished and clustererl into 4 groups through UPGMA clustering method. The data suggest that a relatively small number of microsatellites can be used to estimate genetic diversity in the germplasm of Triticum aestivum. This also confirms the putative potential of microsatellite marker for the analysis of germplasm in wheat.

Objective:‎‏ ‏The purpose of this research is to investigate the efficiency of the ISSR molecular marker in ‎distinguishing the studied watermelon populations, to determine the degree of similarity and genetic ‎distance of the populations in order to use the phenomenon of heterosis and to select suitable parents in ‎watermelon hybrid seed production programs.‎ Materials and methods: In this research, the genetic diversity of 24 different watermelon populations ‎from all over Iran was investigated using 10 ISSR primers. DNA extraction was done using the CTAB ‎method. After PCR, molecular data were scored as zero and one. Indexes related to markers include ‎total number of bands, number of polymorphic bands, polymorphic percentage, marker index (MI), ‎resolution strength index (RP) and polymorphic information content (PIC). It was measured. In order to ‎perform cluster analysis, NTSYS and Excel software were used, and GenALEx software was used to ‎analyze the molecular variance and to analyze the main coordinates.‎ Results: In this research, a total of 202 bands were produced, of which 184 were polymorphic bands. ‎The average number of total bands and polymorphic bands in this study was 20.2 and 18.4, respectively. ‎The highest percentage of polymorphism was related to the ISSR6 primer with 100% and the lowest ‎polymorphism was related to the ISSR5 primer with 80%. The average percentage of polymorphism in ‎this study was also 0.90. The value of PIC index in this research varied between 0.26 and 0.44 and the ‎average PIC was 0.35. After cluster analysis, the studied populations were divided into five groups at a ‎similarity level of 55%. The results of molecular variance analysis and principal coordinate analysis in ‎the studied populations showed that 14% of the variation is between the studied populations and 86% ‎of the variation is within the studied populations. The results of analysis to main coordinates also ‎confirmed the results of cluster analysis‏.‏ Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the ISSR molecular marker has the necessary efficiency ‎to distinguish the studied populations, and on the other hand, considering the considerable genetic ‎diversity between and within the studied populations, the genotypes used in this research can be ‎considered as the population The first one was used in watermelon hybrid seed production programs ‎and also Faryab and Minab populations can be used as cross parents considering that they had the least ‎genetic similarity in order to use heterosis in watermelon hybrid seed production projects.‎‏ ‏

Acid PAGE separation was performed on gliadin proteins of 43 bread wheat promissing lines and cultivars grown in Iran. Gliadin formulae were determined based on the electrophoretic mobility and intensity of gliadin components. A total of 58 gliadin components with different electrophoretic mobilities and 53 gliadin electrophoregrams were detected in the bread wheats analysed. The estimation of genetic similarity between 43 bread wheat, using simple matching coefficients (SM), showed a range of similanty coefficients between 0.45-0.98. All the bread wheats were detectable by their gliadin formula. Out of 43 bread wheats analysed, seven were heterogeneous and showed two to three gliadin biotypes. The biotypes differed from each other for at least three components in one region to several components in different electrophoretic regions. Present results confirm that gliadin markers can be considered as a fingerprint to identify unknown samples and intra cultivar heterogeneity of wheats. Besides, catalouges of gliadin formulas of Iranian bread wheats were prepared for the first time. The data obtained in this study can be used to determine the relationship between gliadin components and morphological and agronomical traits in Iranian breadwheat breeding programs.