International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Km45 Carretera Mexico-Veracruz, 56237, Texcoco, Mexico.
CIMMYT, #118, Lane-3, West of Bahristan Park, Kabul, Afghanistan.
BMC Genomics. 2019 Aug 19;20(1):660. doi: 10.1186/s12864-019-6015-4.
Wheat is the most important staple crop in Afghanistan and accounts for the main part of cereal production. However, wheat production has been unstable during the last decades and the country depends on seed imports. Wheat research in Afghanistan has emphasized releases of new, high-yielding and disease resistant varieties but rates of adoption of improved varieties are uncertain. We applied DNA fingerprinting to assess wheat varieties grown in farmers' fields in four Afghan provinces.
Of 560 samples collected from farmers' fields during the 2015-16 cropping season, 74% were identified as varieties released after 2000, which was more than the number reported by farmers and indicates the general prevalence of use of improved varieties, albeit unknowingly. At the same time, we found that local varieties and landraces have been replaced and were grown by 4% fewer farmers than previously reported. In 309 cases (58.5%), farmers correctly identified the variety they were growing, while in 219 cases (41.5%) farmers did not. We also established a reference library of released varieties, elite breeding lines, and Afghan landraces, which confirms the greater genetic diversity of the landraces and their potential importance as a genetic resource.
Our study is the first in wheat to apply DNA fingerprinting at scale for an accurate assessment of wheat varietal adoption and our findings point up the importance of DNA fingerprinting for accuracy in varietal adoption studies.
小麦是阿富汗最重要的主食作物，占谷物产量的主要部分。然而，在过去几十年中，小麦产量一直不稳定，该国依赖种子进口。阿富汗的小麦研究强调了释放新的、高产和抗病品种，但改良品种的采用率不确定。我们应用 DNA 指纹图谱来评估四个阿富汗省份农民田间种植的小麦品种。
在 2015-16 作物季节从农民田间采集的 560 个样本中，74%被鉴定为 2000 年后释放的品种，这超过了农民报告的数量，表明改良品种的普遍使用，尽管是无意识的。与此同时，我们发现当地品种和地方品种已经被取代，种植它们的农民比以前报告的少 4%。在 309 个案例（58.5%）中，农民正确识别了他们正在种植的品种，而在 219 个案例（41.5%）中，农民没有。我们还建立了一个已发布品种、精英育种系和阿富汗地方品种的参考文库，这证实了地方品种具有更大的遗传多样性，它们作为遗传资源具有潜在的重要性。
我们的研究首次在小麦中应用 DNA 指纹图谱进行大规模评估，以准确评估小麦品种的采用情况，我们的研究结果表明 DNA 指纹图谱在品种采用研究中的准确性非常重要。
