Genetic similarity among European winter triticale elite germplasms assessed with AFLP and comparisons with SSR and pedigree data

Genetic similarities (GS) based on molecular markers are well suited for direct exploration of relationships within a germplasm pool. The objectives of this study were to: (i) assess the genetic diversity in the European winter triticale germplasm by using AFLP markers, and (ii) compare the GS estimates of AFLP markers, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers and MALÉCOT's coancestry coefficient (f). A representative set of 127 European winter triticale varieties and breeding lines, previously investigated with SSR, was assessed with 10 PstI/TaqI primer combinations (PC). AFLP analysis identified 344 polymorphic fragments with an average polymorphic information content per PC of 0.25 and a marker index of 8.56. GS‐values between genotypes (calculated after DICE) averaged 0.61 for AFLP and 0.43 for SSR. The mean f‐value was 0.06. Dendrograms based on ‘unweighted pair‐group method and arithmetic average’ showed no clear groupings within the triticale germplasm pool, but smaller clusters were consistently found. Both molecular marker systems were superior to the coancestry coefficient for genetic diversity assessment within the elite triticale germplasm.